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LINCOLN AND LEE 



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PAtBJOTIC STORY 




By SMITH D. FRY 



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PATRIOTIC STORY 



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BY 



SMITH D. FRY 

Historian of the Capitol 



All of Fry's Patriotic Stories Disseminate 
the American's Creed 

Bv HON. \VM. TYLER PAGE 

(OI'I'ICIAL) 

I BELIEVE in the United States of America as a government of the 
people, by the people, for the people, whose just powers arc derived 
from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic; a sover- 
eign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect Union, one and inseparable, 
established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity 
for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. 

I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it; to support 
its Constitution; to obey its laws; to respect its flag; and to defend it 
against all enemies. 



V "1 






COPYRlGIITFvD IxN THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS BY SMITH D. FRY, 
1922; COPYRIGHTED FOR PUBLICATION IN BOOK FORM ; COPYRIGHTED 
FOR PRODUCTION AND DISSEMINATION ON THE SPEAKING STAGE; 
COPYRIGHTED FOR REPRODUCTION AND DISSEMINATION ON THE 
SCREEN STAGE FOR MOTION PICTURES; COPYRIGHTED COMPLETELY 
IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED 
STATES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 



PRICE, $1.00 

Address all communications to 

SMITH D. FRY. 

P. O. Lock Box No. 1114. 

Wasliiiigtoii. IK C. 



;i,AGl)2511 



DEC 2b \^ii 



LINCOLN AND LEE 

American History Story of Drama, Romance, and Tragedy 
in Real Life, Told at Last, in Full 



Listen! Ilearkc'ii and Heed the wonderful words whicli were 
given to the world hy Jesus, the Babe of Bethlehem ; l)y Jesus, 
the un-heeded Carjx'nter of Nazareth; Jesus, the Marvelous and 
Popular Philosopher of Galilee: Jesus, the Betrayed Man of 
Sorrows in Ciethsemane; Jesus, the Christ of Calvary; Jesus, who 
sat within the boat, on the crystal waves afloat while he tauj^ht 
the listening people on ihe land; the Master who said: 

"Greater love hath no man ihan this, that he will lax (lo7e)i his 
life for another." 



Ill 



DEDICATION 

TO my wife. Mary Kandolph, daughter of Lieutenant Com- 
niandiT John i-!. Randoli)!!. L'. S. Navy, this last literary 
effort of a lony life oi endeavor, is heartily and fervenllv 
dedicated, with the hope that hetter ilian niarhle. hronze. hrass or 
"granite this work ot historic value will prove to he a monument 
worthy of the suhject ; a wonian tliat was a model for woman- 
hood, a wife d incom])aral)le I'ldelity, a mother of angelic atfec- 
tion and a friend of legions who henefited hy her friendship; 
;i monument chiseled with the heart and hands of love. l)y 

Till". Author. 



PREFACE 

FI\( )M llic (lawn ol' ilu- <iav wlicii ihc curtain was raised on 
the stage oi the lirst theatre in tliis country, each, every and 
all playwrights and play-writers have sought and striven in 
vain for the theme, the suggestion or the story from which might 
he developed and produced the outstanding and the everlasting 
Great American ria\ . 

George Washington Custis Lee and William Henry Fitzhugh 
Lee, first and second-horn sons of Rohert E. Lee. were present, 
and in their youthful ways participated in the great reception at 
Arlington Mansion; a reception concerning which there has been 
nothing recorded heretofore ; a reception which surely deserves 
a ])aragra])h or a l^age in the history of oin- country. 

From the lips of those participants in the reception the nar- 
rator obtained vivid informative descriptions of the event. The 
second son, known at home as "Rooney," remembered a great 
deal, in fact nearly all of the utterances of his grand-father, 
whom he loved and almost idolized. While "Rooney" was a 
Member of the House of Representatives in Washington he was 
frequently a dinner guest or an evening caller at the home of 
the writer. IJe spoke unreservedly and with wonderful loving 
appreciation of the heroism of his elder brother during the tragedy 
of the Civil War. 

P>ut. concerning the silent sutTering of Charlotte W'ickham. his 
beloved wife. "Rooney" was surely ignorant entirely. 

General Custis Lee absolutely commanded every member of the 
family to be silent concerning his own imexampled self-sacri- 
fices. The only thing that he would say to the folks at home, or to 
trusted friends, was that "General Ould had charge of the ex- 
change of pri.soners, and 1 did have some conversation with him 
about that matter." 

General Custis Lee never spoke of Charlotte, nor allowed any 
conversation concerning that almost unknown heroine, except on 
one excejjtional occasion when he described to the writer the 
scene of his visit to inform Charlotte that he was going to visit 
"Rooney" in prison ; and even then the marvelous man was un- 
emotional, api)arently. as he (piietly said; "That was the last 
time that 1 saw Charlotte. I did not realize then that she w^as 
really dying, even as she gave me a farewell smile and waved 
her hand so cheerfully. 1 imderstood her tears, but I did not 
understand her physical condition." 

vii 



Not until General Custis Lee was in the sere and yellow leaf 
of life when he knew and fearlessly faced the fact that he should 
soon stand before "the pearly gates of the New Jerusalem" did 
that masterful and mandatory man modify his command of 
silence concerning his unparalleled deeds. 

On the occasion of his last visit to Washington City not many 
months before he reclined upon the bed of illness which held 
him for more than a year, General Custis Lee met with the nar- 
rator by appointment at the Ebbitt House; and there, after a 
• brief conversation concerning family affairs and the final success 
which he had achieved in obtaining recompense from the federal 
government for the Arlington Estate, he listened patiently to 
the hundredth-time request for jiermission to write his story 
because it seemed to the writer to belong to American history 
Laying one slight and slender hand upon the shoulder of the 
smaller man, and holding before his eyes the other up-lifted hand 
as though giving an oath to a witness. General Custis Lee said : 

"After I am gone you may write, but with the absolute under- 
standing that nothing that 1 have done shall be blazoned forth so 
as to share nor to shade the glory and fame of my father whose 
memory I worship. The people of the South must know no other 
hero than General Robert E. Lee." 

That impressive inhibition, which could not be forgotten nor 
evaded, may give to history an innate idea of the magnificent 
grandeur of the character of General George Washington Cus- 
tis Lee. 

Inasmuch as the great peasant prince, Abraham Lincoln, was 
called upon by the conditions into which the life of Custis Lee 
ran, to stand forth as a commanding figure in the story, mention 
must be made of him in this prefatory statement. Not many 
years previous to the production of this work, the narrator gave 
newspaper publication to the most marvelous description of 
Abraham Lincoln that ever had been uttered, and it is here re- 
produced : 

"No sculptor has told the story and no artist has recorded the 
drama-comedy-tragedy revealed in the features of that meteor of 
humanity and spirituality which flashed its brightest iridescence 
on the field of Gettysburg," said Colonel Richard ]. Bright, long 
time eminent in Washington as the matchless executive official 
of the United States Senate, the good man who was closing the 
eighty-fifth year of his sojourn on this planet as these lines "were 
written. 

'T saw Abraham Lincoln when 1 believed him to be the home- 
liest creature in human form ever ])ermitted to cumber this earth, 
by walking and talking with the statesmen of our republic," said 
the venerable sage. 



"1 saw Abraham Lincoln on tlie platform engaged in earnest 
discussion of then current topics and 1 believed him to be the 
most forceful character ever known in the political arena. 

■"1 saw Abraham Lincoln keyed up to righteous wrath on the 
subject of human slavery and I regarded him as a singularly 
lofty demon r)t imiuense proportions, stirring strife between the 
sections of our sacred union of confederated States. 

"I saw Abraham Lincoln administering justice in military and 
naval affairs, when he seemed to be a composite incarnation of 
Julius Qesar and the hero of Trafalgar. 

••1 saw Abraham Lincoln in the \Vhitc House tenderly otiering 
to a mother mercy for her condemned son, sentenced to death by 
court martial ; -saw him revoking the doctrine of 'an eye for an 
eye and a tooth for a tooth.' substituting for it the new com- 
mandment 'that ye love one another,' and 1 believed his face to 
be the most awe-inspiringly beautiful cameo ever cut bv Almighty 
(rod to demonstrate that Omnipotence had 'created man in^His 
own image,' and then sent I lis vSon to .sav concerning mortal man • 
— "Pather, forgive them, for they know not what they do.' 

"Future generations cannot see Abraham Lincoln in marble, in 
bronze, nor on canvas, for no human being can portray him with 
chisel nor with brush. Almost do [ offer up a prayer for in- 
spiration when 1 strive in words to picture that wonderful man. 
of whom It may be said with becoming reverence that he wa.s 
indeed also 'a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.' " 

\\1) bHRTlllvKMORK 

when mournful and s(.rrowing millions were bowing their heads 
in poignant grief, while the mortal remains of Abraham Lincoln 
the great Disciple of the Golden Rule, were being laid away in 
their vyindowless palace of Rest, at Springfield. Illinois, who 
u-ou d have suppo.^ed that the Boys in Blue and the Boys in Gray 
would ever again become reconciled: would ever fervently re- 
peat the vow of the lamented Lincoln, "with malice towards 
none and with charity for all?" At that time, such a re-union 
would have been deemed utterly impossible. 

And yet. in less than a quarter of a century, the sons of the 
valiant American soldiers who had followed Grant and Lee were 
enthusiastically marching together, shoulder to shoulder, in Cuba 
and in Porto Rico, under one flag, with the greatest American 
soldier then living. Major General Nelson A. Miles and the 
greatest living American cavalry leader, ^Lijor General Joseph 
Wheeler. ' 

And furthermore, who then would have supposed that any one 
of those Boys m Blue would ever be pleading for an enlargement 



of the reputation in history of an officer of the Boys in Gray? 

And yet, during the summer and autumn months of the year 
1!)23. Ira M. Bond, one of the soldiers in Bkie, 1861 to 18G5. 
b.aving heard a casual and superficial narration of the Golden Rule 
life of General Custis Lee, insisted and persisted in his insistence, 
until the veteran and retired journalist was practically compelled 
by that Yankee demand for historic justice, to tell to mankind 
the wonderful life of the Confederate General, George Wash- 
ington Custis Lee. 

Without this statement of fact, giving honor to whom honor 
is due, this prefatory statement would not be complete. It has 
been owing to the persistent insistence of Ira M. Bond, himself 
a veteran journalist, that American history, American literature, 
and American valor are given this story of Lincoln and Lee ; 
by one in the sere and yellow leaf of life; but the only writer 
who. could produce these informative and valuable facts con- 
cerning a departed friend. 

Miss Letitia C. Tyler, daughter of President John Tyler, gave 
to the narrator, verbally, her own version of the flag raising. The 
story was written and submitted to Miss Tyler for her approval, 
or for correction. 

On Monday, August 17, 1908, on letter paper bearing the 
family crest and motto, "Spes et Fortitudo," Miss Tyler wrote 
to the narrator an autographic communication which now lies 
before the writer, in which letter Miss Tyler wrote : 

"I am afraid I shall have to ask you to call and see me about 
the article you have sent to me. I cannot go into the question 
on paper. If there is nothing to prevent, suppose you call on 
Tuesday night. Yours truly, Letitia C. Tyler." 

Miss Tyler also gave to the narrator her view of the heroism 
and self-sacrifice of General Custis Lee, after the battle of Brandy 
Station. 

Seeking diligently to cover all possible points in the story, the 
narrator wrote to Col. R. E. Lee concerning the nickname of 
"Rooney," and received the following letter: 
"Ravensworth, Burke, Fairfax Co., Virginia, March 12, 1918. 

"As to how Gen. W. H. F. Lee got the nickname of 'Rooney' 
presents another difficulty. There is nothing harder to get than 
the truth. I can't recall my father ever telling me how he came 
by the name, but it is a tradition of my childhood from my 
earliest recollection, that there was an Irish servant employed by 
Gen. R. E. Lee, possibly as a groom or in some other capacity, 
by the name of Patrick Rooney, who, as a small boy, Gen. W. H. 
F. Lee resembled ; and, as Gen. R. E. Lee was very fond of 
nicknames, having one for every child, and to distinguish W. H. 
Fitzhugh Lee from his cousin. Fitzhugh Lee. who was a few 



years his senior, the former was called 'Kooney," whieh laine 
stuck to him to the da}' he died. 

"I related practically the above in the sick room of Gen. G. W. 
C. Lee, where he was tiat on his back for fourteen months, and 
he said with a good deal of imi)atience that that was not true, 
that the name was gotten from the hero of some book popular at 
that time. He named the character of the book, a novel I think, 
but unfortunately 1 have forgotten hoih. This mucli is to be 
said, Gen. G. W. C. Lee never took any stock in accepted legends 
of history. He generally had a contrar\- version ; so, realising 
that fact, I am very much at sea in this matter. Either deriva- 
tion is possible. 

"Hoping that you will advise me if 1 can be of further service 
in this matter. Yours very sincerely. R. K. Lee." 

This much of private correspondence is given in order that 
the American people may know that, with the instinct, training 
and half century of experience in newspaper work, nothing was 
left undone by the narrator to obtain accurate historic statements ; 
so that there can be no doubt in the future of the evidentiary 
facts herein given to the history of our country. 

That truth is stranger than fiction is a fact thus demonstrated, 
b'uture readers and writers will place the more value upon and 
manifest the greater interest because it is miraculously true that 
these mortals did live and dwell in our own country, and that 
truth is told on every page of this linal production of the long- 
sought genuine Great American Story. vS. D. 1<\ 



STORY OF THE FRIENDSHIP 



OF 



PRESIDENT ZACHARY TAYLOR 



AND 



GEORGE WASHINGTON PARKE CUSTIS 



AND THE 



RECEPTION AT ARLINGTON 



The Prologue 



Wn'H(^UT careful and ct)mprehensive reading of Euro- 
pean lii>t()r\- vou cannot comprehend American history. 
Without accjuiring detailed knowledge of the history of 
Great Britain, particularly of England, you cannot intelligently 
read the history of the United States. English history is a pro- 
logue to our own history. 

They cannot vote intelligently in the next national elections 
who do not know the history of their own country ; and they 
cannot understand conditions existing in this twentieth century, 
without having a clear and clearly understood knowledge of the 
history of our country in the three centuries preceding this cen- 
tury in which we live. 

This great American story is told for the general welfare, and 
in order that the narrative may be clearly understood this pro- 
logue is a literary and educational necessity. You must at least 
know the name and the character of one ancestor, born two 
hundred years ago, in order that you may the better comprehend 
the marvelous character of that one of his descendants, the great, 
great grand-son who walked with men and talked with men and 
lived, "in this world and yet not of this world.'' because he was 
intellectually and spiritually far above it. in an atmosphere of 
purity which was then and is now almost beyond human com- 
prehension. 

For the warp, woof and worth of thi^ hero 
Read names carved on his family tree ; 

Custis, Calvert, Lord Baltimore. Randolph. 
''Light Horse Harry." and Robert E. Lee. 

Daniel Parke Custis. first great merchant prince of X'irginia. 
was the founder of a family that was well nigh a dynasty. Being 
neither a prtjphet nor the son of a prophet. Daniel Parke Custis 
had neither knowledge nor image of the fact that Mother Nature 
had planted within his loins and nourished with his blood the 
germs of America's most chivalric courage, unparalleled romance, 
and Galilean self -sacrifice. 

John Parke Custis, only son (jf the merchant prince and of 
his wife who had been Margaret Dandridge, and who subsequently 
became Martha Washington, was the title holder of the famous 
and extensive Arlington estate; and his son George Washington 
Parke Custis. ado])ted son of George Washington, built the 
famous Arlington Mansion as a home for his bride. In that 
mansion was born his only daughter, Tvlary .Vmi Ivandolpb Custis, 



and she, as the wife of Robert E. Lee, became the mother of 
the typical American hero concerning whose remarkable life these 
lines are written, (jcorge Washington Custis Lee. 

During his entire life of half a century in Arlington Mansion 
George Washington r*arke Custis was one of the most dis- 
tinguished and at the same time one of the best beloved citizens 
of this republic. As an entertainer he had no equal during that 
half century and since that time his superior has not appeared. 

Such were the conditions when George Washington Parke 
Custis announced to tlie society of Washington City, his inten- 
tion to give a public reception at Arlington Mansion in honor of 
his son-in-law, Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee, who had re- 
turned a wounded veteran of distinction and military renown 
from the war with Mexico; and so great was the desire of all ol 
the leading citizens, their wives, and developing children to at- 
tend that reception in honor of Colonel Robert E. Lee, at the 
magnificent Colonial home of his distinguished father-in-law. that 
it became necessary to limit tlic attendance l)y special cards of 
invitation. 

"OLD ZACK" WAS APPRECIATIVE 

But for George Washington Parke Custis the people might have 
given to "Old Zack" a terrible trouncing. 

Although he was an outstanding figure as a great hero of the 
Mexican War, there were others ; and his election to the presi- 
dency in LS48 might not have ])een accomplished, and Zachary 
Taylor knew it, if the grand-son of Martha Washington had op- 
posed him. 

But, that magmlicent old gentleman, then in his sixty-seventh 
year, prayed for guidance by the spirit of Washington, his father 
by adoption whom he had almost worshipjied, and then George 
Washington Parke Custis announced that he would support 
Zachary Taylor, and vote for him cheerfuly. He did more, for 
the old Virginian, the only man living who had personally and 
most intimately known George Washington, went out and made 
several speeches for Taylor ; and the political managers of that 
day knew how to disseminate those speeches throughout the 
length and breadth of the land. 

In the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 15th, 
in the year 1848, The Niles' National Register published the fol- 
lowing news item : 

"The venerable George Washington Parke Custis gave his 
maiden vote for the presidency to General Taylor on the 7th 
instant. This circumstance is handsomely alluded to in the fol- 
lowing eloquent extract of a speech delivered by him at a bar- 
becue held recently at Bladensburg : 



" 'Strange as it may seem to you, my fellow countrymen, you 
see before you an old man with whitened locks and a bald head, 
in fact, a grandfather, who has never yet voted in his life. Living, 
as 1 aways have, within the limits of the District of Columbia, 
no vote was vouchsafed to me until the recent act of retrocession 
set that part of the District where my residence is back to the 
vState of Virginia. And now I am about to give my maiden vote ! 
In doing it, 1 shall exercise a privilege enjoyed by no other voter 
in the nation — the privilege of casting the only vote that can be 
cast hailing from the sacred shades of Mount Vernon, and repre- 
senting the family of the greatest and best of departed men, the 
father of his country, and, oh, when I appeal to his great spirit 
in heaven to guide me. how I shall give my vote in this interesting 
and important election, methinks 1 hear him say, 'bestow your 
suffrage upon the most worthy.' " 

Thus you will see and comprehend that it was quite natural, 
and to be expected, that when George Washington Parke Custis 
invited President Zachary Taylor to a grand reception at the 
Arlington Mansion, the President of the United States would be 
very prompt to respond, and to be glad of the opportunity to thus 
show his appreciation of the support of the most distinguished 
private citizen of our Republic. 

Never before and never afterwards was there such a picture 
of pride and power and pomp in this country; and no such 
• picture can ever again be presented. Over the some-time famous 
old Long Bridge, there was a procession of gentlemen on horse 
back, ladies in carriages, individual parties of ladies and gen- 
tlemen riding high-stepping thorough1)reds ; and all of those 
ladies and gentlemen were individuals of the upper tendom of 
exclusive society. They represented the incipient nobility of this 
republic. Wealth flashed its jewels and expensive apparels, but 
the nobility of intelligence also was there, and compelled implicit 
()l)edience to the declaration that "all men are created eciual." 

Only in memory of the aged and ageing, and only upon the 
pages of history can the Long Bridge live. Such styles of raiment 
for men as well as for women cannot now be reproduced, nor 
ever will be ; and never upon any stage can be depicted the scene 
of that procession of the elect across that highway to the Arling- 
ton estate, though the embowered roadways ascending Arlington 
Heights, and into the great enclosure of landscape surrounding 
the mansion. 

Gayety prevailed, happiness was the dominating spirit of the 
occasion. Although ambition may have shrouded the hearts of 
some of the guests there, as everywhere, even the faces of those 
were masked with smiles as seemingly real as the indescribable 
smiles of innocence upon the beautiful faces of I)abes in arms of 
mothers. 

5 



And so, at the appointed time on the afternoon of March 8, 
1849, a wonderfully beautiful spring-time day, joy was uncon- 
fined; and as the guests began to arrive a line was formed along 
the graveled pathway south of the mansion ; lively chattering and 
gossiping echoing" in the trees not unlike the musical discussions 
of the myriads of birds. 

Although the sun was shining, there was an invigorating breeze 
sweeping over the heights. Prudent observers realized that out 
of the great northwest clouds were coming and that cumuli were 
forming in the warm glow of the declining sun. Wise men and 
women of mature years realized that although the customary 
blizzardy storm of inauguration day had not appeared, the season 
was ripe for atmospheric gymnastics. 

And, while the reception was at the pinnacle of perfection and 
"soft eyes looked love to eyes that spake again, and all w^ent 
merry as a marriage bell," the weather was developing mischief. 
"'The snow, the beautiful snow," was mantling the land, and, 
while the stm was placing its good-night kiss upon the Federal 
City, and was touching with gold the tall tree tops while it 
purpled the distant hills, the winds began to whistle wierd 
\varnings. 

Consequently there was another moving picture on the Long 
Bridge ; a picture of unrestrained gayety and undiminished hap- 
piness, as the returning procession proceeded upon, over and 
through the white roadway. Bright eyes were brighter and 
roseate cheeks in perfect health became ruddy and glowing as 
the rich and the great, in the pomp and the pride of their 
worldly estate, rode, marched and ambled homeward. That night 
many a gallant knight and many a lady fair retired to a com- 
fortable bed to "listen to the patter of the soft rain overhead." 

You should have been told before that, although useful and 
absolutely necessary to contiguous mankind, the Long Bridge 
was not ornamental, and there were no solemn obsequies when 
it was destroyed to make room for the modern highway bridge, 
an architectural achievement which is as beautiful as it is useful. 
But. between the two pictures of the bridge which many hated 
because of the thousands of young Yankees which marched across 
it. and. after this interlude of history, we must return and par- 
ticipate in 

THE GREAT RECEPTION AT ARLINGTON 

On the lower step of the great Greek Portico of the Arlington 
Mansion stood the receiving line, George Washington Parke 
Custis, then 65 years of age, dressed in the garments of Colonial 
days, and next to him his wife; next to her the son-in-law of 
whom they both were very proud. Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. 



Lee, and next to him the wife who loved him with an ahnost 
idolatrous affection. 

In the right of this word picture there must be shown the 
tables, prepared with lavish care and with lavish expenditures, 
attended by the slave servants who were well trained and well 
versed in their duties, each and everyone of them. 

The Marine Band was then an infant musical organization 
under the direction of Professor Scala. and the members of that 
band were properly located on the portico. 

At the head of the receiving line of that greatest home recep- 
tion ever held in this republic came Zachary Taylor. President of 
the United States, next to him Millard Fillmore, Vice President 
of the United States; Howell Cobb of Georgia, Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, and following them the Members of 
the United States Senate and of the House of Representatives, 
and next to them the Members of the Cabinet of the new 
Administration. 

President Zachary Taylor, Vice President Fillmore, and Speaker 
Howell Cobb took their places along side the receiving line while 
the others attending the reception proceeded on to the tables 
where they were met by the trained servants with mint juleps 
and other delicacies which were part of the necessities of all 
receptions in those days. 

After the gentlemen had passed the reviewing line the ladies 
of their families came, each one with modest well-bred pride 
taking her proper place in the line in accordance with the rank 
of her husband ; and after the ladies had passed the reviewing 
line they ascended the steps of the portico, entered the great 
reception room and the other rooms prepared for the reception 
of such a gathering of the nobility of the republic. Mrs. Custis 
and her daughter, Mrs. Lee, entered the Mansion to entertain 
the ladies who were also served with refreshments by the trained 
negro house servants of the estate, while upon the portico quite 
naturally were grouped the heroes of the war with Mexico. 
President Zachary Taylor, General Winfield Scott. Colonel 
Robert E. Lee, and other Army officials in accordance with their 
ranks. Senator Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, also one of the 
distinguished veterans of that war, and a West Point graduate 
of extraordinary merit, eagerly joined the coterie. Having been 
Secretary of War, and usually in touch with military affairs, 
Jefferson Davis was always welcome in military circles. While 
occupying the position of Secretary of War it was he who had 
designated Rol)ert E. Lee to be Superintendent of the Military 
Academy at West Point. In common with all military men of 
that period Jefferson Davis cherished with esteem and antici- 
pation of greatness, the chief guest of that great reception, 
Colonel RolDert E. Lee, the almost defied son-in-law of the host 
of the occasion. George Washington Parke Custis. 



But, before giving details of the sayings and domgs on that 
great occasion ; before teUing of the discussions which followed 
the juleps and other refreshments, let us look over the line of 
the visitors who came to receive the hospitality of the host and 
to honor the chief guest of the occasion, the military hero con- 
cerning whom the whole world was to hear, and whose deeds 
were to fill the pages of American history for all time. The guests 
were distinguished and numerous, as you will observe by scan- 
ning the list of those who came to 

THE GREAT RECEPTION 

President Zachary Taylor of Louisiana, 

Vice President Millard Fillmore, 

Secretary of State James Buchanan, 

Secretary of War Wm. L. Marcy, 

Major General Winfield Scott, 

Senator John C. Calhoun. 

Speaker Howell Cobb, 

Senators Mason and Hunter of Virginia, 

Senators Dickinson and Seward of New York, 

Senators Downs and Soule of Louisiana, 

Senators Gwin and Fremont of California. 

Senators Houston and Rusk of Texas. 

Senators Douglas and Shields of Illinois, 

Senators Clay and Underwood of Kentucky ( L'nderwood was 
grandfather of Oscar U.), 

Senators Webster and Davis of Massachusetts, 

Senators Jefferson Davis and Henry Foote of ^lississippi, 

Senator Cass of Michigan, 

Senator Benton of Missouri. 

Senators Tom Corwin and Salmon P. Chase of Ohio. 

Wives, daughters and ladies of families of Senators and 
Representatives. 

Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, who was to become \^ice 
President by the election of the national ticket of a new political 
party only twelve years in the future ; Hannibal Hamlin attended 
the great reception, although he came some time after the formal 
greetings of the reception line. 

You will observe that there was no North and no South in 
those days, although the slavery question was forging to the front. 

In the large carriage with Senator Hannibal Hamlin there 
came an active and alert little man ; one whose eyes and face 
radiated intelligence ; a man so slender as to excite wonder at 
his palpable fires of inexhaustible energy. The small man was a 
Representative from Georgia, named Alexander Hamilton Ste- 
phens. It was written in the book of fate that he should become 
Vice President of a newly organized government, twelve years 



later, and at the same time that Hannibal Hamlin was to become 
Vice President of the United States. 

The new government was to be known, while it lasted, as the 
Confederate States of America. 

Now, where did that name come from? Who originated it? 
1 f you will read the brief inaugural address of President John 
Tvler, vou will observe that he therein spoke, officially, of "this 
CONFEDERACY"; and President Tyler thus gave the first 
and only official interpretation of the Constitution of the United 
States, holding that instrument to be indeed "a rope of sand" ; 
as British diplomatic officials always had declared it to be. 

John Tyler was the first eminent official in this country to thus 
proclaim the right of secession of a sovereign state. That state- 
ment in the inaugural address of President John Tyler gave the 
name to the Confederate States of America. ■> 

Incidentally it must be noticed that the leading men of the 
North and of the South knew each other well. Those in civil 
life and those in military life were well acquainted; and. when 
ihe disunion came so speedily after that great reception at Arling- 
ton, the leading antagonists knew and could respect the merits 
and mental calibers of each other. Rut. at tliat time, on that 
particular date " 

THERE WAS ONE 

Member rif the House of Representatives who was not very 
well known. He was not included in the list of guests invited 
to the great reception. That he failed to receive an invitation 
was not becatise of his obscurity only. His name was well known. 
His one term of two years was concluded, and he was preparing 
to return to his distant home, after calling and paying his respects 
to the recentlv inaugtirated President. Zachary Taylor. 

But, even if he had remained in Washington City, the obscure 
Member would not have received an invitation to the reception. 
It was utterly impossible that he cotild even expect an invitation, 
for he belonged and he knew that he belonged to that class of 
citizens known as "poor white trash." He was known to be a 
working man. It was known that he had always been kept hard 
at work for his bread and butter. Men of the working classes 
were not expected to invade the classes of the prosperous; and 
they did not expect to receive invitations. This neglected Mem- 
ber of Congress had been working on farms of the western 
frontier of American civilization. Qtiite a large part of his life- 
time had been spent in felling trees, cutting them into logs, for 
home building. Thousands of those felled trees, after having 
been cut into logs, this Member of Congress had split into rails 
for the building of fences. He was known, and contemptuously 
known, as "a rail splitter." His home was in Illinois, and his 

9 



name was Abraham Lincoln ; and, as he sat alone in his room 
at Gadsby's Hotel on the night after inauguration there came 
to him visions of his prairie home and the frontier friends with 
whom he was popular ; and the coming gorgeous reception received 
not even a passing thought ; certainly not a wish nor a regret in 
the simple and honest heart of Abraham Lincoln. 

On the contrary, the new Congressman was solemnly reflective, 
saying to himself : 

"Our Father in Heaven has been very good to me. He has 
led me out of the wilderness of poverty and anxiety into the 
Promised Land of peace and plentv. He leadeth me by still 
waters. He restoreth my soul. My ways now are ways of 
pleasantness and all of my paths are paths of contentment. And, 
Mother has plenty, too. Praise the Lord !" 

As he prepared for "tired Nature's sweet restorer, balmy 
sleep," he glanced at the big old-fashioned bedstead, and smiled. 
It reminded him of the big bed in the rooming house of old 
Mrs. Bedloe, in Springfield, where, only a few years before, he 
had experienced difiicultv in earning the money with which to 
pay a modest monthly rental. 

Vivid memory brought before him a moving picture of old 
Father Speed, the gentleman from Kentucky who kept the gen- 
eral store at Springfield; the kind of a store that lives only in 
history; or, in the memories of those now old and gray or bald, 
or both. In those days the "frontier general store" carried a 
stock of everything, from pins and needles to bufifalo robes and 
bullet molds ; also molds for making tallow candles. 

This merchant (Speed) had a young man from Louisville as 
his principal clerk; although he employed others as they were 
needed by the day or week. One damp, chilly, windy day of 
November the young lawyer (Lincoln) came into the big cara- 
vansary of merchandise, which covered almost half an acre of 
ground, sat silently beside one of the big cannon stoves which 
heated the place, until he caught Speed at leisure for a minute, 
and Lincoln said : 

"Speed. I want to know what it will cost for a single bed- 
stead, mattress and a pillow. I've got a big bufifalo robe, which 
I use in the cutter when I am obliged to travel ; and that robe 
will do for a covering at nights on my bed. I have two rooms 
at my shack. The front room is all the law office I need, and I 
can make a bedroom of the back room and thus save rent. Times 
are awful hard and if I can buy a little bed and outfit, with 
time to pay for it, I can save quite a bit of money in rent in the 
course of the year." 

That little statement told of poverty and of a struggle for 
existence without thinking of comfort, much less of luxury. 
Abraham Lincoln was poor; yes, pitifully poor. 

10 



WHEN LINCOLN MOVED 

After some conversation on the subject Speed told the young 
lawyer, whom he liked very much and for whom he had a special 
regard, because of his having been born in Kentucky; for Ken- 
tuckians are clannish, always have been, and may they always 
continue to be, neighborly clannish ; so Speed liked Lincoln and 
told him that his clerk, the young man from Louisville, was 
going back home on the following day, which was Saturday ; that 
he was to be married and remain in Kentucky. Speed then 
asked the poor young lawyer to go upstairs with him, and Lin- 
coln accompanied him. 

The second story (and it was the top story, too) contained 
hundreds of barrels and boxes of merchandise of all sorts. 
Threads were strung all around the walls and ceilings, and they 
carried dried apples and dried peaches for sale and use during 
the winter. In the center, near the sheetiron "drum" which sur- 
rounded the stovepipe and radiated heat for that upper floor, 
there was a big bedstead, with feather bed and feather pillows, 
and also plenty of bedding. Speed said : 

"If you can get along here, Abe, you can have this place, rent 
free, until you get better fixed. Take the place, save rent, keep 
warm, be comfortable, and take what you want to eat out of the 
store ; and pay me, boy. when you get good and ready." 

Gravely and sincerely Lincoln thanked Speed for the offer, 
knelt down beside the bed for a couple of minutes and went 
downstairs. There was no telephone to use in those days. There 
was no transfer company. Drays were few and far between on 
that day when Lincoln wanted to move his household goods. 
But he managed to pack up all his belongings that afternoon and 
move. Inside of half an hour after leaving the store Abraham 
Lincoln came back, carrying across his shoulders an old-fashioned 
pair of saddle bags, such as were carried on horses* backs back 
of the saddle. Lincoln passed through the store, went upstairs, 
walked to the bed and was heard to drop the saddle bags. Then 
he ran lightly downstairs, went to the big cannon stove, sat down 
in an old, well-whittled chair, poked his big feet up against the 
railing around the stove, looked at the proprietor and said : 

"Well, Speed, I've moved !" 

EXTRAVAGANCE OF HENRY CLAY 

In the early morning of the day of the Great Reception at 
Arlington the obscure Congressman was downstairs, and at the 
newsstand of the hotel he had paid five big round copper pennies 
for the Weekly Patriot, published by Major Beverly Tucker, an 
eminent Virginian. By his side there came an elderly gentleman, 
as tall as himself, and as homely, too; but of a different type. 

11 



The young man immediately recognized, and modestly introduced 
himself to the most popular man in the United States; a man 
whose personal popularity was never equaled in political afifairs 
until fifty years had elapsed, and Theodore Roosevelt stood in the 
spot-light. The young man said : 

"Please pardon me, Sir, l)ut 1 know you by sight ; and am one 
of your countless thousands of admirers. Having been born in 
old Kentucky you will pardon me, I am sure, for introducing 
myself to Senator Henry Clay. My name is Lincoln. I was 
born in Hardin County." 

Like all men truly great the distinguished statesman from 
Kentucky was approachable. With kindly geniality he greeted 
Mr. Lincoln, and at once launched into the narration of one of 
the numberless stories for the telling of which he was justly 
noted. Clasping the ample wage-earning hand of the man from 
Illinois, Senator Clay said : 

"Your name reminds me of my enthusiastic friend Bill Linkins 
of Breathitt County, who has told to hundreds of people about 
his meeting with me on an Ohio river steamboat. He tells all of 
them that I am a good fellow, but that I am frightfully extrava- 
gant. He proves his story by showing to everybody the silver- 
handled tooth brush that I gave him as a present ; and I must 
admit that it was an expensive present. 

"The big mountaineer came into the wash room of the Ohio 
river steamboat one morning and noisily washed his be-whiskered 
face, sputtering profusely as he held double handsfull of water 
before his mouth and nostrils. He noticed me combing my head, 
and borrowed my white bone hair comb. I gave him the comb 
to remember me by ; and had barely done so when he asked me 
to loan him my tooth brush also. I cheerfully complied, and, 
when he handed it back to me I made him a present of it, telling 
him to show it to his friends as a memento of Henry Clay. He 
does so, and grows eloquent over my generosity, liberality, and 
extravagance." 

Not only Senator Hannibal Hamlin and his friend Representa- 
tive Stephens were late comers ; for, as is customary even until 
this day, there are men and women whose heart-beats are so slow 
and so irregular that they cannot learn the value of time. More- 
over, those unfortunates quite naturally hate the men and women 
who are favored by nature with perfect physiques and perfect 
mental machinery; who are also blessed with educational training 
which impels promptness and reliability. 

Until this day we have millions of pretentious men and women 
who falsely proclaim themselves to be ladies and gentlemen, who 
are neither, for they deliberately lie and lie and lie. Their 

1^ 



promises are worded "Fll try" to be there, or "PH try" to do 
as you wish, when they do not intend to try, and they do not try. 
They are habitual iiars, and double dealers in falsehood. 

For, when chided for their falsehoods, they always answer with 
another lie, saying: 'T was too busy;" when they had not been 
busy at all. Graduates of the schools of U. S. Grant, of Robert 
E. Lee, of Nelson A. Miles and of John J. Pershing, are always 
on time, and always keep their engagements. 

On the occasion of the great reception at Arlington there were 
no graduates of those military schools ; and so, there were manv 
late arrivals. But, dilatoriness was customary, and nobody cared 
or even noticed the absentees, until they arrived with excuses. 
Some of those excuses were based on good foundations. 

Within an hour after the beginning and ending of the formal 
reception a most distinguished gathering thronged the great and 
grand Portico, each gentleman having his own pipe and canvas 
bag of tobacco ; or. having Pennsylvania stogie cigars or the 
more pretentious makes then coming into the markets. More- 
over, each gentleman had his mint julep, excepting Mr. Custis 
and a very few others who preferred small glasses of wine. Tt 
was in view of this assemblage of great men who were then 
makers of great events, that a belated big carryall arrived bringing 
Judge and Mrs. Wickham from their estate west of Mount Ver- 
non; and as the country roadways in the spring time are always 
rough and frequently impassable, it was wonderful that they had 
been able to come at all, despite the fact that they were among 
the nearest and dearest of neighbors in those days when the in- 
dividuals of neighborhoods were dwelling apart many miles. 
Guests who liad not known the Wickhams were greatly surprised 
to note in the seat between Judge and Mother Wickham 

A GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL DOLL, 

and it was so well dressed, so carefully tailored, with such wonder- 
fully long golden curls, the people were astounded; and the more 
so, when, as soon as Judge and Mother Wickham had alighted, 
the big beautiful doll l)aby came to life and moved. Yes, it more 
than moved, for it sprang out onto the Portico steps and fairly 
flew over to Grand-pa Custis and almost over-turned that gracious 
and incomparable host. Grand-pa Custis took up the little beauty 
and held her in his arms until Senator Mason of Virginia took 
her, and then loaned her to President Taylor, who said that she 
seemed a little angel that had come down with the falling stars 
of the previous nighi. vShe knew the great big Christian Goliath, 
reached out h.er arms to him. and General Scott lifted her up and 
seated her upi)n one of his liroad shoulders, and then everybody 
could see lovely liltle Charldttc A\'ickhani. the l'?-year-old wonder 

13 



girl of eastern Virginia ; and they saw the deep yellow golden- 
curls that were hanging and glistening away below her waist ; 
such curls as can only be seen, usually, in the Scandinavian coun- 
tries where the girls grow up on the hill sides with the sheep 
flocks; and they saw such ruddy red cheeks as are only worn by 
peaches in full bloom; and Charlotte smiled at everybody and 
showed to all of them such tremendously large and well propor- 
tioned intelligent blue eyes as one expects to see only in old Ire- 
land "where the river Shannon flows." And little Charlotte gave 
to all of them such an honestly innocent, interested and interest- 
ing baby stare, that immediately, everybody loved Charlotte 
Wickham. 

As she sat there perched upon the shoulder of the greatest 
soldier of our country, with a little arm around his head and neck, 
as she beat a tattoo on his broad breast with her white slippered 
feet, the little assemblage noted the pretty white silk pantalettes 
with ankle flounces, the graceful movements of the energetic 
little marvel, and they saw Charlotte Wickham just as she ap- 
peared a few weeks later, saying to Mother Wickham 

"I'm to be Queen of the May, Mother; 
I'm to be Queen of the May." 

And, peeking through the stone balustrades of the Portico, 
observers could see the admiring, worshipful eyes of the big boy, 
the second son of Robert E. and Mary Ann Lee ; eyes that looked' 
in wonder and amazement as one might view in some tabernacle, 
the Holy of Holies; and thus, during all his tesselated after life, 
William Henry Fitzhugh Lee looked upon Charlotte Wickham. 
The first of the happiest moments in his recollection was the day 
when little Charlotte called him by the nickname of his home, 
the name by which his father called him; and after that day he 
was always "Rooney Lee" in the vocabulary of little Charlotte 
Wickham. 

And, just think of the pernicious, misleading hands of fate that 
feed us with hope and give to all of us the poison drink of dis- 
appointment. It was only in the natural routine of destiny and 
fate that Charlotte should admire her playmate, trust him. rely 
on him for defense if needed, believe in his integrity and almost 
love him in full partnership with his admiration of her ; but, 
Charlotte knew that, somehow, it was not Rooney, but another 
whose coming made her heart go pit-a-pat and made her breasts 
defy her control as they heaved faster, breaths that were close 
imitations of sighs ; and. her heart did not go pit-a-pat nor her 
breast heave the faster nor her breath fade into gasps, when 
Rooney came. And yet. she did love Rooney; just, honor bright. 

U 



a little bit; but to Rooney, Charlotte was not a thing of his life a 
part ; she was his whole existence. 

Rooney Lee did not have the vocabulary to express his wor- 
shipful admiration; nor did he have the courage to even attempt 
an expression of adoration, for it requires assurance as well as 
courage to go to a sacred shrine and ask for selfish possession. 
And so, Rooney "stood outside the door" of her heart and did not 
dare to say a word ; and yet his heart throbbed with hope for 
the future; the future which is so distant from boyhood's vision. 
Rooney only knew 

"The smiles and tears of boyhood years 
The thoughts of love, unspoken." 
The hopes and fears of manhood years 
Ambition's temples broken. 

To Rooney, Charlotte was incarnate perfection. To Charlotte, 
Rooney was a worthy descendant of Martha Washington, a credi- 
table son of Colonel Robert E. Lee. a very obedient swain and 
social subject that she could command, and trust ; and she liked 
him better than she liked the other boys that she knew. But, 
before we analyse these children, let us take up the next page of 
our history which is replete with interesting moving pictures. 
One of the best of those scenes is that of the 

INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT ZACHARY TAYLOR 

which occurred on March 5, 1849. It must be remembered that 
there were not more than twenty thousand inhabitants of Wash- 
ington City at that time; but more than five thousand prosperous 
people who could afford to travel came from all parts of the 
country to witness the induction into office of a new president ; 
and one so wonderfully popular. In the throng that came from 
the western and southern frontiers there appeared the Texas man 
who desired to be the "Minister to Dahomey." 

Great crowds, intense enthusiasm, noisy demonstrations, all in 
beautiful weather, characterized the day of the inauguration of 
the Mexican war hero on that first Monday in March. 1849. The 
ceremonies had been deferred one day, because the fourth day 
of March came on Sunday and President Polk remained in the 
White House until the evening of that day. 

Excepting only the wonderful executive mansion, there were 
only two public buildings completed in Washington City at that 
time. The Patent Office covered an entire block of ground be- 
tween F and G Streets on the south and north sides of the build- 
ing ; Seventh and Ninth Streets being the boundary lines east 
and west. On the south side of F vStreet. extending to E Street 

15 



was 'another building worth while. It was only half as large 
as the Patent Ofhce building, and extended from Seventh to 
Eighth Streets, as it does until this day. It occupied the site 
of Blodgett's Hotel, a large brick structure which had been used 
by the Congress after the British vandalism of 1814. The new 
marble building was occupied by the Postoffice Department. 

On Capitol Hill there were two buildings, one hundred feet 
apart, and connected by a covered wooden bridge. Those two 
buildings formed the nucleus of the magnificent Capitol of sub- 
sequent years ; a building which is today, thanks to Architect 
Elliott Woods, the most beautiful and imposing Capitol in the 
world. 

On Seventeenth Street, one block west of the White House and 
south of Pennsylvania Avenue, there were two large brick build- 
ings, each sixty by one hundred feet in dimensions, and three 
stories high. The one facing Pennsylvania Avenue was occu- 
pied by the War Department; the other one by the Navy Depart- 
ment ; and, on that site today stands the immense marble struc- 
ture which is known as the State War and Navy Department 
building. 

On the corner of Fourteenth and S Streets, there is a large 
brick building which has been used for many years as an orphan 
asylum. It was occupied by the Department of State previous 
to 1877, and was "away out in the country." 

That three-story brick building is an enlargement, twice the 
size of the State Department building of 1849; and it was located 
on the groiuid now covered by the north wing of the modern 
Treasury Department. Public btiildings in Washington were few 
and far betw^een when General Taylor was inaugurated. More- 
over, the inaugural procession marched on dirt roads, for there 
was not one paved nor improved roadway in the city ; improved 
by other than grading and leveling processes. 

The sidewalks, between Capitol Hill and the White House 
were improved by the sprinkling and spreading of ashes and 
oyster shells ; the leveling processes having been accomplished 
l)y the leather soles of the pegged shoes, which were the only 
foot-wear of the people of that day and generation. So, Zachary 
Taylor was inducted into a great office, as executive head of a 
great people, but the Capitol city that was seen and known by 
Grover Cleveland, William McKinley and their successors was 
not known to Zachary Taylor. Indeed, an imagination of such 
a Capitol city would have l^een to him like "dreaming of castles 
in Spain." 

At 11 o'clock on inauguration day General Taylor entered an 
open carriage at Willard's Hall, on F Street. That was a very 
large brick structure with marble pillared front. It was con- 

16 



iiected by a secret passage with the old Willard Hotel, where 
General Taylor was a guest. At the head of 

A LARGE PROCESSION, 

for those days. General Taylor proceeded to Fifteenth Street and 
tiien down Pennsylvania Avenue to Twelfth Street, the location 
of Irving's Hotel ; on the corner afterwards occupied by the Kirk- 
wood House, where Vice President Andrew Johnson resided and 
where he took the oath of office as President in 18G5; and there 
President Polk came forth, entered the carriage, and rode to the 
Capitol with his successor. There the oath of office was ad- 
ministered by Chief Justice Taney. The newly inaugtirated 
President read a carefully prepared address. Accompanied by 
ex-President Polk, who entered, the carriage with him. President 
Taylor again headed the procession, which proceeded to the 
White House, wiiere ex-President Polk remained for dinner. 
There were three inaugural balls that night, each one of them 
lieing visited by President Taylor and Vice President Fillmore. 
For the first time in our history 

THE WEST POINT CADETS 

appeared in an inaugural procession, and many hundreds of the 
visitors to W^ashington came particularly to see those young 
gentlemen in their matchless manoeuvres. With official permis- 
sion those young gentlemen attended the inaugural l)alls in the 
evening. On the following day the corps of cadets returned to 
W^est Point, although a few, with homes in the vicinity, were 
given brief leaves of absence. Thus it happened that one of those 
cadets, the tall, broad-shouldered, athletic, handsome, popular 
preparatory Cadet, George W^ashington Ctistis Lee, on leave of 
absence for three days, was at his home in Arlington Mansion 
dtiring the great reception given in honor of his father. Colonel 
Robert E. Lee; and thus it happened that he came upon the Por- 
tico as the distinguished gentlemen gtiests gathered aroimd their 
host, his grand-father, George Washington Parke Ciistis ; and 
the wonderful little one, Charlotte Wickham, who was to be 
Queen of the May, rushed pell mell into his arms. »She accom- 
panied him into the Mansion to join the ladies there. Then the 
Imndsome and agreeable host of the occasion told 

THE STORY OF ARLINGTON 

when President Taylor requested him to do so, asking: 'AVill you 
kindly tell us something of the history of your estate, how and 
when yott built the mansion? WHio was the architect, and wIk^ 
drew the plans?" 

17 



,C -^ 



"This entire magnificent little kingdom of 6000 acres," said 
Mr. Custis, "was presented to Robert Howsen by Governor Wil- 
liam Berkeley of Virginia, without money and without price. In 
that great land grant the modern city of Alexandria and the 
splendid Mount Vernon Estate were included. The Governor 
of the original Colony was supreme, and the acreage of the 
Colony was limitless, as you know, because out of that Colony 
the sovereign people have since carved several great common- 
wealths of the republic." 

"Did you or your father buy it from Howsen?" inquired the 
President. 

"No, Mr. President, Howsen sold it to John Alexander for 
six hogsheads of tobacco." 

"Do you know the date of the original grant?" 

"Yes, Mr. President, the Howsen grant was dated October 31, 
in the year 1669. Howsen sold it for the tobacco to Alexander, 
and it remained in the Alexander family, by entailment, until 
Christmas Day, 1778, when my father, John Parke Custis, bought 
eleven hundred acres from Gerald Alexander, and paid him 
eleven thousand pounds in cash. That would be fifty-five thou- 
sand of our American dollars." 

"Your father invested a large amount of money in a wilder- 
ness." 

"Yes, Mr. President, it was a wilderness then ; but it is de- 
veloping into the most valuable property in our country." 

"Were there any residents on the property?" 

"Yes, Mr. President, on Four Mile Run my father and mother 
had a spacious mansion : but, my father died in 1781. My mother 
went to her original home at Mount Airy, Maryland, and I went 
to live with my grand-mother, Martha Washington ; for I became 
the adopted son of General Washington ; a good father whose 
memory I reverence with love that is almost idolatrous." 

"Where did you get the name of Arlington?" 

"That, Mr. President, was the name given to the estate in honor 
of the memory of Henry, the Earl of Arlington, to whom, with 
Lord Culpeper, the grant of all of Old Virginia was given by 
King Charles, the Second. This great estate was named after 
that Earl of Arlington." 

"But, Mr. Custis, please tell us now about the Mansion." 

"Very well, Mr. President, it is not a pleasant memory, but 
when my grand-mother. Martha Washington, was called higher, 
there was no home for me at Mount Vernon. I went to Four 
Mile Run, and from there I wandered afoot and horseback all 
over the estate until I had finally chosen this site for my home." 

"All this is very interesting, and ought to be given to American 
history. Now, if you, please, tell us about the architect?" 

18 



"Mr. President, at the age of twenty-two years, I really be- 
lieved that I was myself the architect. In later years I have 
learned that I was only an assistant to the real architect." 

"That seems rather strange and a bit mysterious." 

"Well, Mr, President, after selecting this site I went on horse- 
back to Charlottesville, Virginia, and was there welcomed by 
a true friend of General Washington. I remained there several 
days with the genius of democracy, Thomas Jefferson; and he 
was the real architect of this wonderful mansion." 

"Day after day ex-President Jefferson entertained me in his 
library, that great collection which was incomparable on this 
continent ; the library which afterwards formed the nucleus and 
basis of the Congressional Library. He showed me all of his 
wisely selected volumes, paintings, engravings, and pencilings. 
One afternoon Mr. Jefferson said to me : 

" 'Please look at this Temple of Theseus, at Athens. All day 
that has been prominent in my mind. I have been wondering if 
that would not just about suit your ideas of an outline for the 
mansion we have been trying to design.' 

"It was a mingling of friendship for Washington and for his 
adopted son that led Mr. Jefferson to choose that design, and to 
make me accept it as my own by his skillful diplomacy and won- 
derful tact. Then he asked me to let him help me with my draw- 
ings of the inside of that great temple. When I came away Mr. 
Jeft'erson came out with me and, after I was mounted, he said : 

" 'It was very kind of you, my young friend, to come all the 
way over here to see me, and it was a great compliment that 
you have paid me in permitting me to see the wonderful mansion 
as you developed it all in my home. I am sure that the bride 
will love you all the more when she sees what an architectural 
treasure you have designed for her.' 

"And, boy like, Mr. President, I really believed that I had done 
it all, myself." 

"Well, you did the designing yourself, didn't you?" 

"No, Mr. President, I did not. Fully a score of years went 
by before I became fully aware of the fact that Thomas Jefferson 
was the architect, and that I was only a very crude assistant." 

"Do you have many visitors on this side of the river?" 

"Yes, Mr. President, everybody of eminence that visits Wash- 
ington City, visits me. All of the friends of Washington know- 
that this mansion was built, largely, to take the place of Mount 
Vernon where public receptions were almost continuous." 

"Have you entertained any President heretofore?" 

"Yes, Mr. President, excepting President Washington who had 
passed away, and President Adams, who never came here after 

19 



the close of liis term, I have entertained every President since 
the beginning of the Federal Government." 

Here Colonel Lee turned towards the big front door of the 
mansion where his wife appeared, calling "Robert, Robert, dear," 
and signaling with her finger tips for him to come within and 
meet with the ladies, and Colonel Lee, bowing and saluting the 
President and General Scott, responded to the summons and en- 
tered the mansion, where he was greeted by all of the ladies, as 
a war hero should be greeted ; but the others remained on the 
portico, as Mr. Custis continued his story. 

"What tent is that old-fashioned one over there? Is that a 
play house for your grand-sons?" 

"No, Mr. President, that tent is never pitched on the lawn 
except on such rare occasions as the present one. That is the 
original 

'TENT OF WASHINGTON; 

and I took it from Moimt Vernon surreptitiously. That is my 
most valued possession. 

"In the year 182-i I pitched on the lawn the 'tent of Wash- 
ington,' because President James Monroe visited me, and brought 
with him the Marquis de Lafayette. That venerable friend of 
General Washington was my guest for a ninnber of days. As 
soon as he and President Monroe alighted from their horses and 
stood on the j)ortico, Lafayette smiled with considerable interest 
as he exclaimed : 

" T stood beside General Washington inside of the entrance of 
that tent, when Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown.' " 

"Had Lafayette known you before?" 

"Yes, Mr. President, he knew me, although I did not remem- 
ber having met with him. After telling President Monroe that he 
had seen the tent before and recognized it, he turned to me and 
said: 

" 'Mr. Custis I have a very pleasant memory of you when 
you were a very small 'gentleman, with a cockade and a big 
feather, as you stood on the veranda at Mount Vernon, holding 
with one hand the fingers of yotir grand-mother, the beautiful and 
peerless Martha Washington, while with the other little hand you 
climg to one of the fingers of the great and good and gentle but 
powerful General Washington.' " 

Senator Seward of New York came forward at this moment, 
bringing a large and well-cushioned rocking chair which he placed 
so that the venerable host could be seated easily, and he said : 

"I beg your pardon, Mr. Custis, but I went after this favorite 
chair of yours without asking your permission, for a double pur- 

20 



pose. I would not interrupt and ask for a servant to bring it to 
you; and I wanted to have the personal pleasure of rendering a 
little service to one whom all Americans appreciate, respect and 
admire. Please be seated, sir." 

"Thank you. Senator Seward," replied Mr. Custis, and then he 
signaled his body servant, saying: "Moses, as a precaution I 
ought to have my Paisley shawd while seated in this afternoon 
air. By the way, Mr. President, I feel snow in my rheumatic 
ankle, and that is a matchless forecaster of the weather of the 
morrow." 

To the congenial gathering on the portico President Taylor 
then said: "Now that Mr. Custis is made comfortable, thanks to 
Senator Seward, I am going to ask our wonderful host to tell 
us some more things that we ought to know, and that history 
ought to record." 

Turning to the seated host, and courteouslv bowing to him. 
President Taylor said : 

"Undoubtedly, Mr. Custis, you are the only person living that 
really knew George Washington." 

"Yes, Mr. President, only one ever knew him better." 

"And who was that?" 

"My sainted grandmother, Martha Washington." 

"Out of your memories of home life can you tell us who was 
the Boss at Mount Vernon?" 

"No, Mr. President, I cannot, for there was no Boss there." 

"But, the General was Master there, wasn't he?" 

"Yes, Mr. President, Master of the slaves and of the estate. 
But, you must comprehend that nobody ever was Boss to George 
Washington, and he was never a Boss to anyone." 

"You remember him well, don't you?" 

"That can only be answered in Yankee fashion, Mr. President." 

"How is that?" 

"By asking another question, Mr. President. Do you remember 
your first love?" 

From the portico there pealed forth lively laughter which 
echoed in the trees ; and the President joining in the hearty 
applause of the sally of the aged gentleman, said : 

"Please tell us about the great man, as you knew him." 

"Well, sir, speaking of a boss or a master, you must know 
that George Washington received and obeyed the commands of 
but one American officer. After that, he always commanded." 

"Who was his American commander?" 

"It was Colonel Joshua Fry, founder of the chair of Mathe- 
matics at William and Mary College. When the First Virginia 
Regiment marched to the relief of Fort DuQuesne, it was under 
the command of Colonel Joshua Fry; and his lieutenant-colonel 
was a Virginia gentleman named George Washington." 

21 



"Did Colonel Fry leave a military name for history?" 
"Yes, Mr. President, Colonel Fry died at Fort Cumberland, 
on the march to Pittsburgh. The command then devolved upon 
Colonel Washington, and he carved upon a great oak tree this 
tribute : 

" 'Beneath this tree lie the remains of the pure, the great, 
the good, the noble Col. Joshua Fry.' 

"That tribute was overgrown by the bark, and the tree was lost 
in what was then a wilderness. But, General Washington often 
spoke of his only commander, and always with great kindness 
and respectful admiration. It is too bad that the tree could not 
have been preserved.'' 

Readers will remember the great truth set forth by one of the 
great dramatists, in the words : 

"The pen is mightier than the sword,'' 

and it must be said here, parentically, but with some degree of 
pride that, although the tree has disappeared and with it the 
inscription carved by the sword of Washington, that tribute is 
now inscribed upon the permanent page by an unpretentious and 
obscure descendant, so that history will restore to mankind the 
tribute of Washington : 

"Beneath this tree lie the remains of the pure, the great, 
the good, the noble Col. Joshua Fry." 

Inasmuch as the genial host was in willing mood, and the other 
guests were intensely interested, President Taylor continued, 
saying : 

"As there was neither Boss nor Master at Mount Vernon, you 
have memories of a happy home, haven't vou?'' 

"Yes, Mr. President, Mount Vernon was a home where Joy 
was duty and Love was law. My venerated grandmother, Martha 
Washington, worshiped God ; but her husband was her shrine." 

"There was one, however, not an American officer, who com- 
manded George Washington, and whom he obeyed cheerfully and 
loyally. 

"Tell us about that masterful man, for we have never heard 
of him." 

"No, Mr. President, his domination has not been recorded by 
any writer. Indeed, you are really the first to know of him. 
When he was only two years of age I have heard him calling : 
'Father.' and have seen, as I now see in vivid memory, the 
greatest man in the whole wide world obediently answer the call. 
He never failed to answer the command: T want you, D'addy. 
He always came, and took the little boy in his arms. Many an 
hour he walked about the vast lawn and on the spacious veranda, 



carrying that little fellow in his arms, caressing him and answer- 
ing questions that taxed even his boundless stores of knowledge. 

"He would answer the call of the voice of a child, whether 
it cried: 'I want my Father,' or if it shrilly cried, from the corner 
of the Mansion : *Papa can't find me.' 

"Not infrequently, I may say all too frequently, the command 
rang out impatiently: 'Pop, why don't you come to me?' 

"Concerning no one else could the Scripture have been ever 
so practically applied, for indeed, concerning the greatest living 
leader of men it was true that 'A little child shall lead him.' " 

"Were you old enough to know his politics, before he passed 
away?" 

"I was 18 years old, and had been with him daily and hourly; 
and so, I knew his politics, national and international." 

"To what party would he belong today, do you suppose?" 

"To neither party, for they would all belong to him. So long 
as he dwelt on earth, his fellow citizens were followers of his 
politics, and of his policies. May God have mercy and may God 
have pity on our beloved country, if the people ever depart from 
his patriotic instructions, and his divinely wise leadership ; par- 
ticularly his divinely inspired and God-sent w^arning to beware of 
foreign entanglements." 

At this moment there occurred an incident which excited no 
comment whatever, because similar incidents were constantly 
occurring everywhere and on all sorts of occasions. 

One of the ablest, most worthy, most capable of the statesmen 
on the portico fell forward upon the shoulder of another; and 
it happened to be one of his most virulent political antagonists. 
But, the sober statesman put his arm around his weakening 
fellow-statesman, and with the aid of other gentlemen of national 
renown helped the half-drunken man to a chair, and left him 
there with a negro slave to look after him. It was no disgrace, 
only a weakness, to succumb to the influence of alcohol a bit 
of time sooner than others of like habits would fall. But, the 
large majority of gentlemen were always sober in those days. 
President Taylor then asked : 

"Mr. Custis, I presume that there were superior wine cellars 
at Mount Vernon, were there not?" 

"Undoubtedly, Mr. President, and the stock on hand was of 
the largest and best in the land. General Washington, however, 
looked upwards rather than downwards, and the wine cellars were 
opened only when guests were there who expected and really 
required some sort of liquor; for General Washington obeyed 
the Golden Rule, and his guests could always have the kind to 
which they were accustomed. The General did not force his 
\-iews of living upon others." 



''Did not General Washington indulge in stimulants of anv 
kind ?" 

"He certainly did, and, as the years kept rolling on he needed 
stimulants, as all aged persons need them. He used Madeira and 
sometimes a Cuban wine which was very sweet. In winter time 
the General found both food and stimulant in our home-made 
hard cider." 

"You had beds of mint, too?" 

"The best in Virginia, and I believe the largest. You must 
understand, Mr. President, that General Washington was the 
greatest and the most liberal entertainer in our country." 

"Then he enjoyed mint juleps as all other gentlemen do?" 

"Quite the contrary, Mr. President, General Washington hated 
every form of distilled liquor. I remember that one Friday Mr. 
Jefferson came to Mount Vernon, and on Saturday morning Mr. 
Hamilton came. It was not a political meeting, I am sure, for 
Mr. Hamilton was surprised when he found Mr. Jefferson there. 
But both of the gentlemen were induced to remain over Sunday ; 
and so, on Sunday morning they went with the General to the 
old Pohick church. In the afternoon, while on the veranda. 
General Washington spoke very emphatically, and I can remember 
his language as well as his emphatic and angry manner, as he 
walked along the veranda, for he said : 

"Gentlemen, there is an evil spirit over-shadowing our country. 
Several gentlemen brought bottles in their carriages, as though 
they could not even worship God without their spirits in bottles. 
That habit is growing in the upper classes. It will sink down to 
the lower classes. I can foresee riots and ruin in every bottle of 
distilled liquor." 

"Mr. Hamilton, the only man I ever knew who was emphatic 
with the General in his expressions of contrary opinions, pro- 
tested against the extreme violence of the outburst of Washington, 
and, after listening to Hamilton, as he always did with great 
respect, General Washington said : 

"No wise man will ignore the wisdom of Holy Writ. It is 
there recorded that they who draw the sword shall perish by 
the sword. Remember, gentlemen, that the original inhabitants 
owned this land on which we stand. White men drove them out, 
robbed them, and will exterminate them. But, white men have 
accomplished their purposes not with bullet and sword alone. They 
have done it with 'Fire- Water.' The Indians properly named 
the poison which they like so well, and it has led them to ruin. 
This government of the people will be everlasting under proper 
conditions. If this government ever shall fade from the earth, 
it will be because of internal dissensions and disagreements, all 
of them caused by 'Fire-Water,' " 

34 



BABBLE. BABBLE, BABI5LE 

with jabber, jabber, jabber, came the interruptino- voices of chil- 
dren, and piercing through the din came the laughing but shriek- 
ing cry of "I don't beheve it," and httle Charlotte Wickham 
came racing across the portico, followed by Archie Ashby, the 
sturdy red-headed boy from the Mountains, with cheeks redder 
than the hair on his head. Pushing aside those most potent, 
grave and reverend seigniors of American statesmanship Char- 
lotte raced to the host and climbed upon his knees as she asked the 
question : 

"Grand-})a Custis, did you ever see a Yankee?" 

Her big blue eyes were fairly glimmering with curiosity and 
intense earnestness, as she impatiently awaited the answer, which 
was : 

"Why. of course, Charlotte, I have seen a Yankee. Why do 
you ask such a question?" 

"But, Grand-pa Custis, I mean, did you ever see a real Yankee 
nlive and on its feet?" 

"Now, Charlotte, you little terror, what is your joke about ? 
What interests you on that subject?" 

"But, Grand-pa Custis, did you ever see a real Yankee really 
and truly alive and without any hat, all bare-headed? Now, 
honor bright. Grand-pa Custis, did you?" 

"Yes, child, I have seen quite a number of Yankees, all of 
them very much alive, walking around, and many of them I 
have seen bareheaded, too. Now, what is it all about?" 

All of the statesmen there gathered around the little in(|uisitor 
and the venerable sage, listening. Charlotte said: 

"Why, Grand-pa Custis, Archie Ashby says that Yankees are 
all alike. They have long-spiked tails and have horns on their 
heads, just like Apollyon, in the Pilgrim's Progress. Is that so?" 

"No, little one, that is not so. It is an awful lie. Somel)ody 
has been lying to Archie, and he has been misleading vou. 
Archie, boy, remember, always, that Grand-pa Custis told you 
that you must never tell that story again. Some bad man started 
that story. I suppose that it was some man drinking 'Fire- 
water' that started that story. You must tell all of your boy and 
girl friends that it is an awfully wicked lie, and an unpatriotic 
lie. too." 

Then, turning his attention to Charlotte, while the sturdy boy 
stood there astonished but unafraid, Mr. Custis said: 

"Now, my dear Charlotte, I am glad that you came to me with 
the story. Going out from here, you and Archie can do a great 
deal of good for our glorious country, by denying that story. 
And now, Charlotte, how would you like to see a real live 
Yankee ?" 

"Oh, Grand-pa Custis, can I ever see a live Yankee? Can T 
go where they live?" 

25 



"Yes, you innocent little dear, there is a live Yankee right 
near to us. You know Senator Seward, and you like him, too. 
Well, Senator Seward is a really, truly, sure enough live Yankee. 
and he represents a million Yankees that resemble him, without 
spiked tail and without horns." 

"Oh, Senator Seward, please take me up again and hold me. 
so that I can tell everybody that I love a real Yankee. Will you?" 

Laughing immoderately for one of such studied dignity, the 
Senator from New York took Charlotte into his arms, and then 
he said: 

"Look right over my shoulder, Charlotte, and there is the 
greatest orator in the world. Senator Daniel Webster, and he is a 
Yankee, too ; and he represents about a million other Yankees.' 

Her friend whom she dearly loved, General Scott, then took 
the little one in his arms, and said : 

"Remember, my little sweetheart, that General Scott told you 
that thousands of Yankees went with him to Mexico, and they 
were brave American soldiers. General Jackson had some Yan- 
kees with him at New Orleans, and General Washington was 
surrounded by Yankee soldiers when he raised the first-made 
Stars and Stripes over his headquarters at Cambridge on Janu- 
ary 3. 1776." 

"I'm mad at Archie," said Charlotte as she gracefully glided 
down to the floor. "I like Yankees, so I do. I wish I could 
marry a Yankee right now. I'd do it, just to spite Archie. So 
there !" 

Quite a bit of excitement was caused in the group of states- 
men by that thrilling little incident. When quiet reigned again 
for a moment. President Taylor spoke to Mr. Custis, saying: 

"That shows how strife is impending, and how it is being cul- 
tivated secretly by some unpatriotic politicians. What do you 
suppose General Washington would do, Mr. Custis, under such 
circumstances? What would he do if the North and the South 
would separate?" 

"There can be only one answer to that question, Mr. Presi- 
dent." said Mr. Custis. "Two Presidents have spoken for Wash- 
ington ; and another will arise, in God's own good time to speak 
for Washington. The North and the South can never separate." 

"But, Mr. Custis, many men of superior capability believe 
that separation is inevitable. What two Presidents have spoken 
particularly for General Washington?" 

"Well, Mr. President, it has been very clear to me that Presi- 
dent Monroe was acting somewhat, and I believe a great deak 
under the influence of the spirit of Washington, when he made 
it impossible for 'foreign entanglements' to come to our shores. 
President Monroe warned all Europe to keep away. He would 
not, and he could not, invite foreign governments to come into 
our midst." 

26 



"Then, President Andrew Jackson spoke for Washington, 
when he declared with such emphasis : 'The Union must and 
shall be preserved' !" 

"But, Mr. Custis," continued President Taylor, "do you sup- 
pose that General Washington could control such conditions as 
are now so prevalent ?" 

"Could he?" exclaimed Mr. Custis, rising from his chair. 
''Washington could do everything, and do it well. If the General 
were living, he would make it clear to the North and to the 
South that separation would mean complete destruction. General 
Washington would make them understand that in the event of 
separation the South would not, and the North could not. enforce 
the Monroe doctrine. Washington would make it clear to both 
sections that separation would be only the beginning of British 
domination. That would follow as night follows day." 

"While I admire with you the Father of our country," said 
President Taylor, "I do not believe that anyone could so control 
affairs in our country, under existing and growing conditions." 

"Then. Mr. President, you have read history in vain. Remem- 
ber that Washington held with one hand the incomparable Thomas 
Jefferson, and with the other hand, at the same time, he held 
the indomitable Alexander Hamilton. Thus, today, he would 
hold the revolutionary statesmen from South Carolina, and also 
the masterful centralizing statesman from ^Massachusetts. Gen- 
eral George Washington would and could hold together this 
great and growing country, so that all of the people would avow 
the doctrine set forth by Senator Webster in his reply to Senator 
Hayne, that ours is and shall be 'a government of all of the 
people, by all of the people, for all of the people.' 

"And furthermore, Mr. President, let me assure you that I 
have a religious faith and belief that the spirit of Washington 
will always be with us; so that, if this sentiment of separation 
shall continue, and an effort be made to that end. this country 
will have a President who will have the influence of the spirit of 
Washington with him always, so that he will proclaim as his 
own doctrine that he will preserve for all time the 'Union, now 
and forever, one and inseparable.' " 

That the venerable host was somewhat weary was becoming 
apparent. Having arisen, he remained standing by his chair. He 
drew around him the heavy Paisley shawl, and said : 

"Gentlemen, those March winds are shrieking and beginning 
to moan angrily, and you will pardon me for covering my head 
with this light cockade, for a sudden chill might prove to be 
serious with me." 

President Taylor, who had been giving very close attention to 
every word. said, apologetically : 

"Please pardon me, Mr. Custis, I am sure that I speak for 
all present when I say that you have given to us a wonderful 

27 



entertainment ; but 1 should like to have you enlighten me, and of 
course enlighten all of us, concerning General Washington's 
refusal to accept another term in the Presidency. Do you know 
the real, inside purpose and reasoning for that decision?'' 

"Yes, Mr. President, and I believe that every citizen of our 
country should know, for everyone will spontaneously approve 
the reasoning and the high purpose of the first President of our 
republic. 

"The subject was prominent in conversations at home on a 
number of occasions. When my grand-mother was asked for 
her opinion, she replied, as she did to his inquiry on every 
national topic, in these words : 'Whither thou goest, I will go.' 

"Before making public his decision concerning a third term, 
the General stated his conclusion and his reasoning, in substan- 
tially these words, which were spoken to grand-ma: 

" 'You know, as well as I do, my dear Martha, and maybe you 
l<now better than I do, that my days are gliding swiftly by, and 
it is probable that I should not live through another term of 
office. The task is constantly growing in magnitude and in 
responsibilities. It is necessary for me to look into the future, 
for the welfare of the country. 

" Tf I shotild accept a third term in the presidency, and live 
through that term, and then decline to serve for a fourth term, 
that would make a precedent which might limit the aspirations 
of ambitious men in after years to three terms in an office which 
is constantly increasing in power. 

" 'But, suppose that my term of life should cease during my 
third term of service. There would then be no precedent what- 
ever to curtail the ambitions of someone with King George's 
love of power. Some man with superior talents for leadership 
might serve two terms, and make use of the power of the office 
to secure a third term. Having accomplished that object, there 
would be no precedent to prevent such a man from seeking and 
compelling a fourth term. 

" T have thought of the coming of some young man into the 
office, a man of forty years, one who could command popular 
applause by territorial aggressions with Patrick Henry's ora- 
torical talents; or, one with a natural love of power imbued 
with the spirit of Henry the Eighth ; and such a man might 
persist in a fourth or even a fifth term. Then, a dynasty could 
be formed, and this republic fade from the earth as all other 
republics have faded, except the Helvetian republic, and that 
one so small and reclusive as to be really no forceful precedent. 

" 'And so, my dear Martha,' said General Washington, 'I am 
sure that the last service that I can render the country will be 
the best service, in thus leaving a precedent which will be likely 
to prevent the lapse and destruction of the republic ; a precedent 
which patriotic men will always be able to use to thwart selfish 

28 



ainljitions. I will make it clear that a third term is unwise and 
unpatriotic. I will decline it.' 

"Mr. President, the General died in what would have been the 
middle of a third term if he had accepted it. His declination 
was wise, patriotic, far-seeing, and that declination was the 
greatest of all of the great deeds of General Washington for his 
country." 

Then, turning towards the massive door of the Mansion, Mr. 
Custis said : 

"Mr. President, that little elderly lady coming out of the Man- 
sion with her son-in-law. Colonel Robert E. Lee, attended the 
first reception ever held at Arlington Mansion. At the beginning 
of the year 1804, the year when the Mansion was completed, she 
was Miss Mary Lee Fitzhugh, scarcely IG years of age. But, 
in that year the negroes of the estate held the first reception 
here. They came from the slave quarters and gathered on one 
side of the lawn, when Miss Mary Lee Fitzhugh arrived here, a 
IG-year-old bride, accompanied by her happy husband, and she 
became the mistress of the grandest colonial mansion ever built in 
America. She has been a wonderful wife and mother. 

"See how proud she is of her handsome and distinguished 
hero son-in-law." 

"She has ample reason to be proud," said General Winfield 
Scott, "for Colonel Robert E. Lee is a marvelous man, and a 
magnificent soldier. My successes in Mexico were largely due 
to the skill, valor, and undaunted courage of Robert E. Lee. He 
is the greatest military genius in America today."' 

[end of prologue.] 



2i) 



The Story 



MANY y^ears ago an unpretentious, modest, retiring and 
reclusive assistant pastor of a church in Washington City 
dehvered an elaborately scholarly lecture entitled "The 
Light of the Dark Ages"; and every hearer was undoubtedly as 
deeply impressed and as largely enlightened as this narrator. 
The lecturer subsequently became Archbishop of Dubuque, and 
still dwells in Dubuque, as these lines are written. 

Attention was directed by the lecturer to the conditions in the 
world before and after the Dark Ages; he pictured vividly the 
awful and frightful conditions of the centuries when the spirits 
of evil predominated and seemed to dominate. And then the 
beloved Father Keane directed his hearers to "the little gleam 
of light, so small and so obscure that only the keenest eyes of 
educated intelligence can discern a single ray. But, the light was 
there and it shone through all of the Dark Ages ; and without 
that light the world would have continued in darkness. But, we 
have knowledge today, history, science, religion, and social devel- 
opment, all because of the Light of the D^rk Ages ; that little bit 
of a slender light that shone unfalteringly through the blackness 
of the fog of brutality and crime. 

"The Light of the Dark Ages," said Father Keane, "came from 
the tallow dip of the cloistered monk, for it was he who secretly 
and religiously preserved for you and for me and for all future 
generations, the gems and precious metals of history that would 
have been forever lost but for that light of the Dark Ages." 

Thus it was that mankind was given the works of the historians 
from Herodotus to Bancroft, the science and logical philosophy 
of Aristotle, the literature of Homer and of Virgil ; and, how 
much we owe to the historians of other days has not been nor 
ever can be calculated. 

Plutarch gave us the lives of the great men of Rome, and, 
without Plutarch's Lives, Shakespeare could not have given to 
literature the characters of Caesar, Brutus, Cassius, Antony and 
Augustus ; nor, could Longfellow have had the inspiration to tell 
to youth the fact that 

"Lives of great man all remind us 
We can make our lives sublime. 
And, departing, leave behind us 
Foot-prints in the sands of time. 

Without that light of the Dark Ages there could have been no 
Luther to enlighten the sagging church that now begins to realize 

31 



its indebtedness to that masterful man. There could have been 
no Alelancthan, no Calvin, no Cranmer, no Knox, na Wesley, 
no Adoniram Judson ; not even a hare-brained but prosperous 
■evangelist out of the sporting arena of our country. 

And so, the writer of history today deserves recognition and 
appreciation because, even in a most humble sphere, he is fol- 
lowing the commendable example of the cloistered monk whose 
tallow dip gave to mankind the faithful but faint ray of the 
Light of the Dark Ages. 

Long before he fell from grace and lapsed into the inconse- 
■quentiality of a lordship, while he was himself alone crowned by 
the literary jewels of his brain, Alfred Tennyson enriched the 
world with ideals divine. Two facts of inspiration are set forth 
bv Tennvson in the three lines, telling 

"Howe'er it be, it seems to me, 
'Tis only noble to be good. 
Kind hearts are more than coronets." 

Those facts were as seed sown and cultivated in the ijrain 
and heart of George Washington Custis Lee when he was barely 
out of swaddling clothes. His tutors were magnificent and 
incomparable. Those salient facts of life were taught to Custis 
Lee by his grand-father, George Washington Parke Custis ; by 
his grand-mother, Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis ; by his mother, 
Mary Ann Randolph Custis Lee ; and by his father, General 
Robert Edward Lee. Those tutors taught him according to the 
Bible plan, "precept upon precept, here a little and there a 
little," so that he was nurtured and developed day after day, 
as the Man of Galilee, whose life he was to live over again, 
would have had him developed. 

In prattling babyhood, in boyhood, at school, at church, in the 
Military Academy he carried into his daily life the Golden Rule 
which all mankind should bear and wear ; and in the last days of 
his mortal existence he was doing good to others. 

For his unexampled deeds of greatness and nobility, in peace 
and in war, General George Washington Custis Lee abjured 
kindred and friends to be silent. As Jesus abjured his disciples 
to "tell no man," but let his deeds speak for themselves, so 
Custis Lee loved others, and he shrunk into voluntary retirement 
from public acclaim. His noble heart of incomparable worth 
was gentle, kind, and over-shadowed with devotion to love and 
<luty. 

It was because of that Christ-like spirit of self-abnegation that 
even this narrator was awed into silence concerning the life and 
deeds that all mankind should know ; but, at last, mankind shall 
know concerning Custis Lee that his life, his love, his courage 

^•2 



all shone forth before all who knew and loved him, as brillianLly 
as the lights of the stars of the morning that "sang together for 

joy-" 

During the first hundred years of the existence of the American 
republic the rising and succeeding generations were sanely demo- 
cratic because they sincerely believed that "all are created equal/' 
Because of that condition of affairs Custis Lee was democratic 
in all of his associations, although he was a scion of nobility, 
with environments which made it utterly impossible for him to 
forget that he was and must live as a thoroughbred. Even the 
illiterate slaves always looked up to him as to a saint amongst 
men. 

You must understand and comprehend that it is a task as well 
as a duty to become, even superficially, the historian of a super- 
man, and yet. it is a labor ipse voluptas. When it fell to the 
lot of Virgil to write concerning a man of similar mould, he said 

ARMA VIRUMQUE CANO 

and, as Virgil thus began the Aeneid, the identical words should 
be used in this story of virtue and valor, for it is true thai "I 
sing of arms, and a hero." 

The epic of Virgil narrated misfortunes on foreign soil. This 
greatest American story ever told begins with "colonial days." 
and narrates blue blood heritage even unto the fifth antecedent 
generation. First of all to come upon the stage is the incom- 
I arable merchant prince of the new world. Although not armed 
cap-a-pie as knights-errant for conquest of dominions including 
lady fair, the makers of America were worthy followers of the 
best of the Crusaders ; and. in a better, nobler sense it mav be 
said of them : 

■'In days of old. when knights were bold. 
And barons held their sway," 

they faced foes invisible and conquered them. He who con- 
quested the wealth of the new world, who became the most alert, 
far-seeing and most venturesome in mercantile affairs, shall hold 
the stage for time sufficient to let you know the firm foundation 
of physical and mental power which our hero manifested on 
every epochal occasion in his wonderful career. That knight 
of old was the first merchant prince of the Colony of Virginia. 

The maternal ancestry of our hero also must shine forth in 
the story, because his great-great-grand-mother was a wonderful 
woman whose childhood, girlhood, maidenhood and wifehood all 
combine into a laminated illumination of tlie pages of the early 
history of our nation. Wise as she was winsome, she chose a 
man among men who had achieved leadership ; such a man as 
could transmit to liis {)r()geny forcefulness and strengtli. 

33 



Martha Dandridge was the most beautiful and the most briUiant 
of the belles of Williamsburg when Williamsburg was the Capital 
City of the British Colony of Virginia; and that incipient 
metropolis was the recognized colonial capital because Governor 
William Gooch made the village his abiding place. 

Admitted by all as being the most regal in appearance, the 
most royal of manner and the most democratic in social inter- 
course with conceded equals in the colonial court, Martha Dand- 
ridge was sought by many admirers, and with reverential courtesy. 
But the queenly Martha was icily adamantine in her ideals. 
Ignoring all courtly courtings, her heart gave no warning throbs, 
until at last came one who was as threateningly dangerous as 

ANOTHER YOUNG LOCHINVAR 

and Martha Dandridge knew it immediately. When an immov- 
able body is athwart the pathway of an irresistible body there 
can be but one result ; an inevitable smash-up. That's what 
occurred at Williamsburg almost two hundred years ago when 
Daniel Parke Custis came upon the scene, a sane Petruchio ; a 
roystering, boisterous, aggressive, irresistible, but always courte- 
ously gentle knight, a determined master of affairs ; and he 
snatched the spotlight, pervaded the play, and allowed no other 
hero in the act. Well-born, well-bred, of powerful physique and 
tireless brain, he followed with business acumen the riot of 
society which Sir Walter Raleigh had started by carrying tobacco 
to Europe; an un-heard-of vegetable, a novelty, a habit-producer 
for which the wealthy classes were ready to pay in cash, even 
fabulous prices. The father of 

DANIEL PARKE CUSTIS 

catered to that expensive folly of the old world nobility. Rapidly 
he grew into affluence and distinction. The worthy and self- 
assertive son of such a man could not be denied, for he would 
not be denied. He was a handsome fellow, too, and so Martha 
Dandridge capitulated, because her heart was carried by storm. 
In June. 1749, Daniel Parke Custis brought his bride to the best 
colonial mansion in America ; brought her to "The White House." 
still famous on the vast Custis estate on the Pamunkey river. 
It was built upon an estate which was a wedding present from 
his father. There they dwelt in harmonious happiness until 1757, 
when the master merchant went the way of all flesh, leaving 
"The Widow Custis" in possession of an estate worth more than 
One Hundred Thousand Dollars ; an immense fortune for those 
days, and she became known as "the wealthy widow." Of course 
there were suitors, too many of them. 

34 



ANOTHER CAPITULATION 

Wise and prudent in her virgin beauty, Martha Dandridge had 
been unapproachable by flatterers or adventurers. And now the 
beautiful Widow Custis rejected attentions and resented assertive 
courtings. No selflsh fortune-hunting Lothario could tell to her 
any tale of adulation that could equal the story told to her by the 
mirror in her own palace. She was living only for the little 
ones that had been sent to her from the other side of the veil 
of eternal life. 

And thus two years floated away into the dismal darkness of 
forgetfulness ; two happy years, for she devoted her time and all 
of her educated talents to John Parke Custis and to his little 
sister, Martha Parke Custis, teaching them the rudiments of the 
knowledge of their environments; also opening visions of future 
distinction and responsil)ility. Suitors continued to come and to 
go, and their presence might be recorded as interesting as enter- 
tainments during dull moments. But at last came the handsome 
soldier, the tall, athletic masterful man who gave to an attendant 
slave the care of his horse and accoutrements, and entered the 
door as a welcome guest ; welcome, because Martha Custis was 
impressed by complete recognition of the greatest and grandest 
man she had ever known ; and thus it happened that the most 
l)eautiful woman in X'irginia soliloquized: "How beautiful men 
are !" 

That handsome young officer was j^ersonally attractive ; one 
of that rare class of men who are not made more attractive by 
the uniform, nor more adorable by an amorous dance. He was 
a real man, a manly man, and Martha Custis fully realized his 
worth. The young officer had won honor by unexampled courage 
and bravery, and by having demonstrated superior military ability. 
Moreover, he had won fame as a surveyor of vast forests in 
virgin mountains, and in vales beyond the mountains. He was a 
hunter, too ; and had acted as a guide for a large army, far 
away along the Potomac to Fort Cumberland : so that his spot- 
less military career had resulted in the ]X)pular approval of the 
people, who called him 

THE HERO OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD 

and so, with fame, distinction, manly pulchritude, wealth, ambi- 
tion, and genuine affection for the children as well as for tiie 
widow, Colonel George Washington led his bride away from the 
"White House Farm" in March, 1T59, to his own home at 
Mount A'ernon. on the Potomac ; the home that was to become 
distinguished and famous as the home of the first super-man on 
this continent; the home also of Martha, the worthy wife of the 
man who was "First in War, First in Peace, and First in the 
Hearts of his Countrymen." 



Never has there heen a wedding during the present era in 
which events have demonstrated greater manifestation of the 
truth of the sacrament, "What God hath joined together." George 
Washington was as near an ideal of perfection at home and in 
peace, as on the tented field. The little ones had a kindly, 
helpful instructor, a happy home, and love divine in that home. 
When the family moved to Mount Vernon the little boy was 
6 years, and the baby girl was 3 years old; and both of them 
were beloved companions of George Washington as well as of 
their marvelous mother. 

Happiness they enjoyed, happiness seemingly eternal in their 
fairy-like environments, without a cloud of any kind for twelve 
years; and then, the baby, Martha, when only 16 years of age, 
was called from the narrow vale of life between the peaks of 
two eternities ; and thereafter she was seen only with the aid 
of the lenses of Faith and Hope; and to the boy, 19 years old, 
the master mind of that age gave all of his attention. That boy 
was to become sole owner and possessor of the 

TITLE TO ARLINGTON 

and concerning that estate we will now invite your attention, 
briefly. It must be remembered that those magnificent forest- 
crowned hills bordering on the Potomac were the beautiful em- 
bowered homes of birds and animals whose presence made musical 
and fairy-like the vast expanse of wonderland, the happy hunting 
grounds of the Powtowmack tribes of the South and the Susque- 
hanna confederacy of the North ; and those people held title 
in fee-simple to all of those lands ; and, for those lands, in 
priority, the original tribes waged many wars in long past 
centuries. Early settlers on "Observatory Hill," in Washington, 
disinterred countless skeletons of Indians of both of those tribes, 
numl)erless weapons of warfare alongside of them ; mute but 
unquestionable evidence that aborigines were enacting tragedies 
and fatal follies ages before their successors manifested equally 
insane notions of human aggrandizement at Gettysburg. When 
the marauding white men came, they ignored God-given titles, 
and made records of their own declarations of metes and bounds. 
Never earth's philosopher traced with the golden pen, on the 
deathless page, truths half so sage as the poet wrote for men, 
declaring that 

"MAN'S INHUMANITY TO MAN 

makes countless thousands mourn." One of the first known 
records in well-preserved archives sets forth that the British 
Governor, William Berkeley, of the Colony of Virginia, gave to 
one Robert Howsen an estate of six thousand acres (6,000) of 
the colonial domain as a priceless present. October 21, 1660, is 

36 



the recorded dale of iliat tirst colossal outrage against the copper- 
colored proprietors of that land. It was located "along the 
Potomack River, south of the lower rapids, and westward as 
may be surveyed." 

Robert Howsen sold that magnificent acreage to John Alex- 
ander "for six hogsheads of tobacco." Then, after retaining the 
vast estate in the family by entailment, more than one hundred 
years, it was divided on Christmas Day, 1T78, after a very^ 
hilarious celebration of Christmas; for, on that date, Gerald 
Alexander conveyed eleven hundred acres (1,100) of the estate 
to John Parke Custis, prodigal son and heir of the opulent 
merchant prince and land operator, for the sum of eleven thou- 
sand pounds in the currency of the Colony of Virginia ; an 
amount equal to so many pounds sterling. 

THE EARL OF ARLINGTON 

was the first free-booter that came from Great Britain with the 
King's warrant proclaiming for him the ownership of all of 
Virginia ; and that included the boundless domain from which 
other sovereign States of this republic were subsequently carved. 
Assuming proprietorship "by right of discovery," King Charles 
the Second issued that grant which made Henry, then the Earl 
of Arlington, the owner and ruler of a domain more vast than 
all of the other British possessions of the world. The great- 
grand-father of John Parke Custis named his small estate in 
Northampton County after that first Earl ; and this young was- 
sailing son of Daniel Parke and Martha Custis named his estate 
of 1,100 acres along the Potomac, after that smaller estate of 
his ancestor. The first owner of that particular acreage, John 
Parke Custis, was 

SUCH A BAD BOY 

that he was not a dutiful son to his marvelous mother. When 
he was 18 years of age he was sent to King's College, in New 
York; but he remained there only a few months. He was 
not a student, and would not be. He was an heir, and a sole 
heir after the death of his sister during her minority. Women 
could not own land. When his mother ceased to be his guardian, 
the estate of Daniel Parke Custis came to the young spend- 
thrifty wassailer. He was disobedient to his mother and insolent 
to his masterful guardian. He could and did indulge his fondness 
for fine raiment, the best horses and dogs and all sports, par- 
ticularly hunting. 

Wandering from one worry today to another for the morrow, 
is usually the fate of every mother of a wild and selfish child. 
And so. while the bereaved mother at Mount Vernon was 
weeping for the loss of her little girl she was constantly antici- 

37 



pating other sorrow, probably greater grief, on account of the 
reckless and indolent son. Like a meteor out of a clear sky 
came to her a letter which opened up a new and vast vista of 
amazement. He informed his mother that he had taken the 
vows of matrimony on February 4, 1774, having been married 
on that date to Eleanor Calvert of Mount Airy, Maryland; a 
child of only 16 years concerning whom his mother knew sub- 
stantially nothing. However, she was a descendant of Lord 
Baltimore, and her ancestry was replete with the names of men 
of achievements. Time amply attested, and his mother soon 
learned, and gladly, that her son had made no mistake in his 
choice of a wife, for ''Nellie Custis," as she became known, was 
popular in the higher circles, and particularly popular in the 
heart of the wonderful childless mother at Mount Vernon; for, 
after the death of her daughter and the departure of her son, 
and the public demands which were made upon her husband, 
Martha Washington had been wandering about her empty home 
with empty arms and empty heart. Her bright daughter-in-law 
•was, to Martha Washington, a continuous ray of sunshine, and a 
star of hope in the reclamation of her son. It was Nellie Custis 
who induced her husband to build their home at 

FOUR MILE RUN 

on the Arlington estate, only eight miles north of Mount Vernon. 
There three children were born and bred. They also brought 
light, love and happiness to their grand-mother. The two fami- 
lies were near neighbors and the children were accustomed to 
having two homes in which they reigned as the c|ueens of both 
hearthstones. Thus, "after many days," John Parke Custis 
became a faithful husband and a good father in a home where 
Joy was duty, and Love was law. That home was the first 
and then the only home on the now famous Arlington estate. 
There the three little girls were born. But when the time ap- 
proached for the coming of a fourth child the young mother 
responded to the calls from her home at Mount Airy, Maryland; 
and there she went without opposition, but greatly to the regret 
of Martha Washington. And so it happened that Nellie Custis 
was in the home of her childhood, maidenhood and young wife- 
hood when the fourth child came ; a little boy who was christened 
with the name of his (to be) guardian angel, 

GEORGE WASHINGTON PARKE CUSTIS 

and it should be engraved upon fadeless and lasting bronze that 
the lad so named became indeed one of Nature's noblemen, and 
he always bore and wore that matchless name with unblemished 
honor; maintained it untarnished. 

38 



Moreover, it should be said in letters both bold and bright 
that when the little boy was only 6 months old his father died ; was 
called hence, prematurely, because of exposure and hardships 
which he endured as a soldier in the last campaign of the great 
struggle for Liberty and Independence. He died for his country. 
Before entering the army John Parke Custis had become a most 
worthy citizen. 

George Washington legally adopted the fatherless boy. That 
great and good man was the only father the little fellow ever 
knew. From Washington he learned how to live ; and he lived 
always in accord with the lessons learned from the life and from 
the lips of the matchless man whom he loved and revered. 

Muscles, bone, and sinew are powerful. Knowledge is power. 
George Washington Parke Custis obtained knowledge and wis- 
dom from the greatest source in this country. From his paternal 
companion and guardian he learned all about the history of his 
country ; all about the War of the Revolution, its causes, military 
annals and its triumphant achievements. From Washington he 
learned all about the Constitutional Convention, and about the 
Constitution which that Convention developed ; a Constitution 
which could not or would not have been accepted and adopted 
but for the influence of Washington himself. Providentially, 
and for the ultimate development of our modern super-man, 
Washington was transmitting greater and more lasting influence 
than might have been handed down to posterity by a descendant 
of his own. His adopted son learned by observation during the 
two presidential terms of Washington ; learned diplomacy, state- 
craft, and the glamors of official hvpocrisy that parades as 
"Society" in circles more en^-ied than enviable. 

BLAZING LOG FIRES 

in the immense fire-places at Mount \>rnon not only warmed 
the great mansion during frigid wintry nights and stormy after- 
noon, but they lighted the rooms and illumined the features of 
the great instructor of the adopted son. When there were favor- 
able weather conditions the great man and the apt pupil were 
along the river banks, under the trees, hunting, rowing and 
philosophizing. And because the youth loved his benefactor 
with an almost idolatrous affection, he avoided all of the roads 
that lead to fame. He wanted distinction to belong to his mentor ; 
the undivided admiration of all mankind. Thus, it will be 
observed that the man who was to become the 

TEACHER OF THIS HERO 

thus practiced the self abnegation and self-effacement which 
stand forth in another generation. When the summons came 
which called his grandmother to another sphere and left him 

39 



homeless as well as fatherless and motherless, George Wash- 
ington Parke Custis went forth quietly from the home at Mount 
Vernon, retaining only the vivid memories of babyhood, child- 
hood and youth with the foremost man and woman in the new 
world. From the smaller home at Four Mile Run he went abroad 
every day, viewing and surveying the great estate of which he 
was the sole heir. From every point of view he studied the 
topography. He also peered into the future far enough to 
anticipate the growth of the great capital city, and then he 
selected the forest-clad heights to be the site of the new home 
which he had been forming architecturally in his own mind with 
the aid of the library and personal views of Thomas Jefferson. 
Then he superintended the digging for the foundations into 
which should be laid the massive blocks of stone ; he selected the 
flagging stones for the magnificent portico ; personally he directed 
the roofing and the decorations ; with plummet in hand he 
watched the placing of the portico pillars. Every brick used 
in the work was moulded and burned on the estate. Giving to 
everything his personal attention, he did what he knew George 
Washington would have done ; and so. he produced 

ARLINGTON MANSION 

and finished it for occupation in the year 1804. It was builded 
to last for all time. No longer could he entertain the national 
and international friends of Washington, as he had been doing 
at Mount Vernon. But he could and would entertain them in 
his own home. For well-nigh half a century he did lavishly 
entertain those friends, as Washington would have had him 
entertain them. When he was 23 years of age he was married 
to Mary Lee Fitzhugh; an admirable Virginian virgin of ancient 
lineage. The first mistress of the grandest colonial mansion 
known then, or ever, in this world, was only 16 years old. It 
was a wonderful home for a child mistress, but the little princess 
reigned with queenly grace in the mansion which is now "on 
Fame's eternal camping ground ; where Glory guards, with solemn 
round, the bivouac of the dead." 

Arlington Mansion has a frontage of 140 feet ; including the 
main building and the wings of either side. From numberless 
samples in the Jefl^erson collection the young master selected the 
Temple of Theseus, at Athens, as the style for the great portico; 
and it is a faithful reproduction. 

That portico is sixty feet wide. With proper proportion it 
is twenty-five feet deep. 

The gracefully beautiful entablature is uplifted by eight im- 
pressively massive Doric columns. 

The site is wonderful beyond powers of description. It is 
incomparable. From the portico there is an unobstructed view 

40 



of the Potomac river. That view is glorified by the hills of 
Maryland which green-wall the National Capital City with waving 
forest leaves ; green walls which seem like frames formed by 
Nature for the picture that no camera can reproduce and no 
artist can paint. 

Anticipating unworthy conditions at the old home, the affec- 
tionate grand-son of Alartha Washington managed to carry to 
his new home numerous mementoes, unknown to others, and 
that which he valued most highly and guarded most carefully 
was the 

TENT OF WASHINGTON 

and when he desired to do special honor to any one of the best 
friends of Washington, the famous old war-worn and weather- 
beaten Tent was pitched on the lawn before the Mansion. When 
General Lafayette was entertained in Washington City by the 
Federal Government, on October 13, 182-1, the noble Custis loaned 
that Tent to the Reception Committee, and it was pitched in the 
rotunda of the Capitol building. Then, during the month of 
January, 1825, Lafayette spent almost a week in the Arlington 
Mansion, and there, upon the lawn, the "Tent of Washington" 
was pitched, and there it remained during that entire visit. One 
afternoon while standing beneath the covering of that tent, where 
he had stood with the great master of men in "the days that 
tried men's souls," Lafayette was so agitated with memories of 
the great general and the great events of the war that the wither- 
ing cheeks of the venerable soldier of Liberty were moistened 
with tears which shone like jewels reflecting his recollections of 
the campaigns, marches, thrilling charges, victories and glories 
of those days. To the noble Custis, whose honored guest he 
was, Lafayette said : 

'T first saw you at Mount Vernon, in 1784, when you were a 
very little gentleman, with a feather in his hat, holding fast to 
one finger of the strong hand of the good General George 
Washington." 



HOW FIRM A FOUNDATION 

Character is no stronger than its foundations. Very few of 
our people know the true breadth and strength of the marvelous 
character of George Washington; and, that being the case, our 
people have not comprehended the character of his adopted son, 
his beloved pupil, George Washington Parke Custis, to whom 
Washington imparted a daily motion-picture review of all that 
was good and great in the character of the Father of his Country; 
and thus was reproduced the fundamental principles of that great 
character. 

41 



These facts are stated, and emphatically, in order that you may 
comprehend how it happened that the greatness of the character 
of George Washington was imparted to the hero of this story. 

Sir George Otto Trevelyan, describing the encampment at 
Valley Forge as the most celebrated encampment in the history 
of the world, says : 

"Depressed and anxious, Washington was not perturbed out 
of measure, inasmuch as he believed himself to be in direct rela- 
tions with an Authority which was superior to Congress. The 
old iron master at Valley Forge, with whom Washington lodged, 
related that one day, while along the creek, he found the General's 
horse fastened to a sapling. Looking around he saw Washington 
in a thicket by the roadside on his knees in prayer. The honest 
man, who was a Quaker preacher, said : T felt that I was on 
holy ground, and withdrew, unobserved.' On returning to his 
home he told his wife that the Nation would surely survive its 
troubles, because, if there was anyone on earth to whom the 
Lord would listen, that one was General Washington." 

That firm foundation of character was transmitted to his 
beloved youthful companion and pupil. To his daughter George 
Washington Parke Custis transmitted that firm foundation. 
Then she and her father taught to the hero of this story, in his 
youth and young manhood, how to found, build and develop the 
character which made him the American hero of whom but few 
have heard, but concerning whom all mankind shall know and 
to whom deferential appreciation shall be given. 

AMERICA'S GREATEST ENTERTAINER. 

While living in, for, and with mankind, George Washington did 
not wear the sacred emotions of his nature on his sleeve, nor 
did his pupil nor did the hero of this story. Washington mingled 
with men with democratic demeanor, assuming no superiority, 
and yet receiving the voluntary obeisance of his fellow men. 
When he laid aside his public duties on March 4. 1797, and 
returned to his Virginia home, all men of distinction followed 
him to that home, so that Mount Vernon became the Mecca of 
America. The distinguished master there was the greatest enter- 
tainer then or ever since on the American continent. That fact 
was observed and comprehended by the young master of the 
Arlington Estate who was rapidly approaching manhood ; and 
thus it naturally followed that when he could not continue at 
Mount Vernon to receive those friends of Washington, he planned 
to make and he did make Arlington Mansion the greatest and 
most generous place of entertainment in the L^nited States ; a 
Mansion most richly furnished, with china, silver, gold, silk and 
mahogany ; and no historian ever has liberally and gracefully 
described the magnificent manner in which his child-wife cor- 

42 



dially co-operated with him. During the Hfe-times of the friends 
of Washington they were welcomed with all of the well-hred 
dignity and cordial courtesy that was habitual to Washington 
himself on all occasions. 

"Welcome" was signaled by the beds of flowers, over the various 
gates and on the genial faces of the gentleman and the gentle 
woman who cheerily greeted all visitors ; and they were num- 
berless. The growth of Alexandria, which was a commercial 
port, and of Washington, the National Capital City, the increas- 
ing population in the farm lands of near-by Virginia and Mary- 
land, supplemented the generous hospitality, so that the children 
of the churches. Sundays schools, and the mature folks of lodges 
and civil societies wended their ways towards the "Arlington 
Springs," and the Arlington Estate became the favorite picnicing 
grounds of the surrounding country ; and those parties continued 
to grow in numbers until the political disturbances of 1860 and 
18G1. when clouds of national insanity obscured the sunlight of 
fraternal love. During the year ISnii upwards of 20,000 people 
enjoyed outings there, and 

HUNDREDS OF LITTLE CHILDREN 

were entertained l)y an elderly genlleman, dressed as in colonial 
days, distinguished in appearance but wearing welcoming smiles. 
He came to their gatherings, clasped their little hands, talked 
with them, and entertained them with popular tunes on a violin ; 
and that elderly gentleman was a master musician, too. 

That was George Washington Parke Custis, the beloved grand- 
son of Martha (Custis) Washington, the adopted son and wor- 
shiping companion of George Washington ; the wonderful man, 
heretofore so little known, the onlv man ever tutored by George 
Washington. 

Mark ye! What Washington did for that man in his youth, 
George Washington Parke Custis did for his own grand-son, 
George Washington Custis Lee, the eldest son of Robert E. Lee. 

Thus, you see, the tutoring of the Father of his Country was 
transmitted, first hand, to a worthy and capable pupil. This, 
as well as his heritage of superior intelligence, must in some 
measure account for the magnificent manhood of George Wash- 
ington Custis Lee. 

Unless conversant with provincialisms and pronunciations, you 
could not know that the word P-i-e-r-c-e is pronounced Purse, 
nor that in New England the word Q-u-i-n-c-y is pronounced 
Quinzy. 

On July L 18i4. General Franklin Pierce, a distinguished 
veteran soldier of the War with Mexico, was President of the 
United States and concededly the most strikingly handsome man 
that had ever held that high office after Thomas Jetterson. 

43 



Officially present at West Point on that date, President Pierce 
reviewed the corps of cadets and participated in their commence- 
ment exercises. 

The first honor man of the graduating class was George 
Washington Custis Lee of Virginia. The young cadet was per- 
sonally congratulated and complimented by President Pierce ; 
and mirabile dictu, he was handed his first commission by the 
Secretary of War, who was also a soldier and hero of the War 
with Mexico, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi. 

Constantly conscious of the fact that he was the grand-son 
of "Light Horse Harry Lee," of revolutionary fame, the young 
first honor man was also intensely impressed with consciousness 
of the fact that he was the son of the Superintendent of the 
Military Academy at West Point ; and his father, Colonel Robert 
E. Lee, was also a hero of the War with Mexico. Christened 
with the name of the Father of his Country, and with an enviable 
ancestry, it was natural only that the young cadet should strive 
to be worthy of his antecedents and environments. 

During his long life of four score years Custis Lee never 
forgot those salient facts ; nor ever once did he fail to act well 
his part in the drama, romance, tragedy and glory of the epochal 
years of his immediate future. 

Seven years after that commencement day at West Point the 
Superintendent and his son, the first honor man. had occasion 
to delve in vivid memories of the day; for, that same Jefferson 
Davis was President of a vaster, more populous, more prosperous, 
and more promising republic than Washington had ever dreamed 
of ; and, that same Jefferson D'avis was beckoning to both of them 
to come to his side. They did not stain the escutcheon of the 
Lees with ingratitude. 

On the morning following the commencement exercises at 
West Point, President Pierce was accompanied by Secretary 
Jefferson Davis, General Winfield Scott, Colonel Robert E. Lee, 
and other officers on the trip to New York City, and thence to 
their various destinations ; so that in the evening of July 3, 
Colonel Lee arrived at Arlington Mansion for a brief vacation. 

Quite naturally the young lieutenant spent some time in the 
big city, not in recreation, but in shopping. He desired to carry 
home some presents, and he also selected some little mementoes of 
the metropolis for neighbors near and a neighbor dear to him. 
In the early morning of July 5 the negro house servants who 
were on the lookout for him hastened to notify his mother and 
she was soon clasped in the arms of her first-born son, a stalwart, 
handsome young athlete, straight as an arrow and carrying him- 
self with princely pride. 

Together they ascended the stone steps of the great portico, 
when, at the door, appeared Colonel Robert E. Lee. In- 

44 



stantly the young lieutenant withdrew his arm from his mother's 
waist, came to "attention" and saluted his superior officer, who 
returned the salute, and then the father came and clasped the 
hand of the son of whom he was so proud. After entering the 
great reception room, the mother said : 

"My boy. my first-born son, I am so proud of you. Your father 
tells me you are the first cadet that ever went through West 
Point without a single demerit, and also came forth at the head 
of his class. It's wonderful to me. I'm so happy." 

"Mother mine,'" said Custis, "we are in perfect harmony as 
usual, for I am as happy and as proud as you are ; happy that 
I have made my mother happy, and proud because my mother is 
proud of me." 

William Henry Fitzhugh Lee. the younger brother, came run- 
ning across the lawn, having just been informed of the arrival 
of Custis. He was almost 16 years old, stout, much heavier 
than Custis, but very active. Quickly after the greetings the 
younger brother, whom they always called by his nickname 
"Rooney." said to Custis : 

"I want to go into the army, too, like Grand-pa and Dad, and 
like you. I don't want to go to Harvard. I want to go to West 
Point, too." 

Colonel Lee said : "I'm glad you have that ambition. 'Rooney,' 
and maybe I can find the political influence to put you there 
when you are a few years older. Just now, I have no influence 
worth while ; but I will keep in mind your proper ambition." 

Custis Lee, the elder, although weighing twenty pounds less, 
always spoke of his younger brother as "my little brother." 
He said : 

"Some day when I can win my way to an assignment in the 
War Department, I will direct my energies to finding that 
influence for my little brother. He ought to go to West Point 
if we can put him there." 

BEING IN LOVE WITH A GIRL 

very early in the morning July 7, 1854, at Arlington, Brevet 
Lieutenant Lee departed, on horseback, his proud mother saying: 

"Charlotte is a prize, my son ; but no girl is going to win my 
boy away from me. Maybe, after I am gone, you may tliink 
seriously of Charlotte ; but not now. Give to her and to her 
mother and father our hearty regards and neighborly affection." 

Also very early morning, Julv 7. 1851. at the home of Judge 
Wickham. a spacious frame Virginia Mansion, on the portico 
was Charlotte Wickham (a little blonde, like Delia Fox) with 
her mother. Charlotte, being in love with a young man, was 
restless, remained standing there, went down the path to the 

45 



gate and back again several times, and Mrs. Wickham, kindly 
reproving her daughter, said : 

"Charlotte, my child, Custis will remain vv^ith his mother and 
the family for some days before coming here. Remember, dear 
child, his mother has not seen him since he closed his vacation 
last October ; and his mother of course wants to have her boy 
with her for a while." 

Charlotte replied: "Well, when Custis is my boy his mother 
will have to come here to see him. I'll never let him leave me; 
never." 

"But, Charlotte, you simple little, impatient not-to-say selfish 
angel; I am afraid that Custis is not half as crazy about you as 
you'd want him to be. Yes, don't frown at me, because I meant 
to add, as I'd like him to be. But, he hasn't proposed yet. He 
can't be here today. So, quit promenading to the gate. Be 
patient a few days." 

With full skirt extending only a few inches below the knees, 
and with ankle flounces around the bottom of her pantalettes, 
Charlotte was a picturesque as well as graceful little human 
gazelle as she ran to her mother smiling. Init almost petulantly 
saying : 

"Mother, I'm sure you never were in love." 

Well, there was prophecy or some other kind of inspiration 
in Charlotte's hopeful and loving heart ; for she was right in 
confidently anticipating the coming of Custis. Maybe it was 
telepathic communication. At any rate. Charlotte continued 
her out-looking excursions to the big gate, gazing down the long 
road again and again and slowly returning to the veranda or up 
stairs to the mother who continued to reprove her. 

However, in the early evening when Charlotte walked down 
the stairs to gaze into the gloaming, the Judge and Mrs. Wickham 
tauntingly accompanied her. But, no sooner were they near the 
gate where they could see the roadway for a mile or more, than 
sure enough there they saw the young lieutenant in uniform, 
accompanied by his negro valet, slowly approaching ; slowly 
because the horses had been urged onto a forced march by the 
young lieutenant who was as anxious to see Charlotte as that 
Httle one was anxious to see him. 

Instantly Charlotte unclasped the gate-lock and tried to open 
the gate so that she could run down the road to meet Custis. 
But, Judge and Mother Wickham restrained her. Decorum and 
dignity required that Charlotte return to the house and she was 
required to accompany Mother Wickham to her room, and 
Mother Wickham said : 

"Nice-looking eyes you now have. Sit here and keep cool, 
as a well-bred Virginia gentlewoman should be. Remain here 
with your mother until the coming of the guest is announced tO' 

46 



your father. He will cordially welcome the visitor. Then he 
will send Aunt Lize to annoinice him. We will take our time 
getting ready to meet with him." 

Charlotte, stamping her foot and shaking her head saucily, said : 

"I'm not a gentlewoman, Mother; not yet. I'm just 16, and 
I love Custis. We're ready now, both of us. There needn't 
be any getting ready at all. I'm going downstairs right now. 
Ain't he handsome ?" 

"No, dear, we're not ready. His coming is a surprise to us. 
Shame on you that your mother must stand against the door 
this way to protect you from your own folly. Custis nitist not 
know that we are ready, nor that you are anxious to throw 
yourself at him. Remember, you are a Virginia gentlewoman 
now : and you must always act well your part. Your father 
must not be ashamed of your appearance nor of your maimers 
and style." 

"Dad don't like Custis, and I know it," said Charlotte. 

"On the contrary," said Mother Wickham, "your father says 
that Custis is the brightest and best young man that he knows 
of ; and that Ctistis always has been a model boy, worthy of his 
ancestry and his heritage." 

"Can't you see that both of us would like to have Colonel 
Lee and Mrs. Lee look upon our daughter in like manner ; as 
a model of the highest type of Virginia gentlewomen?" 

"Pardon me, dear old Mom. I'll be good. 'Deed I will. But. 
Mother, I know you never were in love.'' 

And it was high time for Charlotte to be drying her eyes and 
powdering her nose. Her cheeks were ripe cherry red alwavs. 
but they colored a peach-bloom deep pink as she glanced out of 
the window and saw her Custis dismounting by the big iron 
gates and handing the reins to his butler, who led the horses 
away while Custis stepped upon the graveled path with sprightly 
tread and approached the veranda upon which Judge Wickham 
was standing. The Judge was wearing his smoking jacket and 
btirning Virginia tobacco in the meerschatim pii)e which he had 
been diligently coloring for more years than Ctistis had lived. 

Walking towards the top step of the veranda with slow and 
stately dignity, Judge Wickham received Custis with a hearty 
hand-clasp and words of sincere and cheerful greeting. After 
crossing the broad portico and entering the spacious reception 
room, Custis inquired with manifest interest if the ladies were 
well, and if they were at home. 

Judge Wickham jingled a tiny silver bell which always was 
available on the center table. Immediately black Liza, slender, 
clean, graceful, intelligent, a model house servant, appeared, 
received the inquiry, and retired to announce the guest to the 
ladies. 



47 



Slaves of the best and most aristocratic families were illiterate, 
but cunningly cute as they grew to maturity in the house and 
home. And so, as Liza ascended the stairway she looked back, 
smiled and went on up to the chamber of Mother Wickham. 
As Liza entered the room she began saying : 

"Missus, Mr. Custis Lee " 

Charlotte ran impulsively towards the door, but her mother 
intercepted her and replied to the message by saying to Liza : 

"Go and tell your master that my daughter and I will both of 
us be very glad to meet and welcome the gentleman as soon as 
we can prepare ourselves." 

Mrs. Wickham restrained Charlotte, closed the door, and when 
Liza returned directed her to stand with her back against the 
door ; for the prudent and controlling mother knew that her 
daughter was straining at the mandatory leash of maternal dis- 
cipline ; and, although well bred and biddable, the time had 
arrived when independent womanhood was beginning to assert 
itself and Charlotte might become uncontrollable. Liza took her 
position, her black countenance beaming with emotions of admira- 
tion and hope for her young mistress, and Liza said : 

"Miss Charlotte, yo' shore is han'sum t'day. Hoccome?" 

Judge Wickham was wisely entertaining the welcome visitor 
by directing his conversation to the subject with which he was 
most familiar, and Custis was answering questions galore con- 
cerning West Point and the daily life of routine there. Upstairs, 
when the grand-father's clock had marked the passage of fifteen 
minutes. Mother Wickham said: 

"Liza, go and tell your master that we will be downstairs in 
just another minute." 

But Mother Wickham restrained Charlotte for another five 
minutes, and then preceded Charlotte in descending the stairs. 
Mother Wickham greeted Custis with a kiss, just as she had 
been greeting him from the days of his babyhood. How Charlotte 
did envy her mother when she kissed her Custis and while she 
was saying: 

"This is a great honor, Custis, and a great surprise. Of 
course you have been home, haven't you; and are all well there?" 

"Oh, yes, Mrs. Wickham, all are well, and I bring messages of 
neighborly regard and afifection from both father and mother." 

Charlotte's greeting was as efifusive as might be expected of 
one so young, and so emphatically in love ; and yet, she was coyly 
dignified imtil her mother had first greeted the guest. Charlotte 
said : 

"I told Mother yesterday and todav that v^ou were coming, and 
I am delighted to see you." 

"Thank you, and many thanks to all of you, for vour friendship 
Mud kindness. I am on to Richmond. I shall visit our White 

48 



House Farm cslate on the raniuukey, the L.idal home of Grand- 
ma Martha Custis, and then 1 go on to Richmond to be made a 
Mason in the lodge of which my noble father is Past-master." 

Mrs. Wickham took her place beside her husband. Charlotte 
conducted Custis to a large old-fashioned hair-cloth sofa. All 
were seated, when Mrs. Wickham rang a little silver bell. When 
Liza appeared, Mrs. Wickham said: 

"Prepare tea at once, and send Jim here.' 

When Jim, the black butler, arrived. Judge Wickham gave him 
orders, and he soon reappeared with the Virginia nectar, in two 
big goblets, with mint stems extruding profusely over the tops. 
As host and guest sipped their juleps, the conversation proceeded. 
Judge Wickham told his wife and Charlotte that 

"Custis came out at the head of his class, the first honor man." 

"Just as might have been expected of the sqn of Colonel Robert 
E. Lee," said Mrs. Wickham. 

"Just as I KNEW it would lie," said Charlotte. 

"But. my friends, I am more proud of my record of four years 
at West Point without a demerit, nor a reproof." 

"How like the great-grand-son of Martha W'ashington," said 
Mrs. Wickham. "Surely all of your great ancestors are hap- 
pier, even in heaven, to see you growing into perfect- manhood." 

"But, I am not growing into perfect manhood," said Custis. 

"Mother, dear, remember that flattery is not go,od for young 
men," said Judge Wickham. 

"Flattery can never hurt me," said Custis. "I am absolutely 
proof against it." 

"Why, Custis." said Mrs. Wickham, "it is impossible for any 
human being to be unmoved by flattery." 

"But my armor is of divine origin," replied the young man very 
earnestly. 

"Now, Custis, isn't that sacrilege?" asked Mother Wickham. 

"No, indeed, it is not. That is religious reverence. I can never 
be flattered into self-conceit, because I know my own inferiority 
to the only perfect man living." 

"Why, Custis, you are talking like a preacher, and I don't un- 
derstand," said Mrs. Wickham. 

"Well, I can explain," said Custis. "I have before me, always, 
the man whom I can never equal, the hero of America, the great- 
est soldier, and the typical southern gentleman, too. I shall follow 
his example, but there can be and there will be no other idol of 
American hearts." 

"And. who is this perfect man, this great soldier, this typical 
southern gentleman? Tell us, Custis." 

"General Scott has described him, spoken of him as the master 
militarv mind of this age. His wife, his children, and all who 
know him pronounce him typical in all manly virtues and powers." 

49 



"But, Custis, is there such a man?" 

"Yes, there is such a man. It is my noble father. Colonel 
Ro'bert Edward Lee." 

DIPLOMACY AT HOME 

While Cadet-Lieutenant George Washington Custis Lee was 
starting for the Wickham home, in July, 1854, his father, Colonel 
Robert E. Lee was playing the part qf a West Point cadet by 
"walking his beat," as his frequently facetious wife termed it. 
The Colonel was walking from the big front steps of the big front 
yard, all around the big mansion to the big back yard. Colonel 
Lee was also indulging his well-known habit of "letting down and 
hauling up" with the pulley rope of the splendid and still inex- 
haustible well. Where water was a-plenty Colonel Lee was always 
a heavy drinker. So, as he walked and walked, he frequently 
stopped and drank from "the old oaken bucket that hung in the 
well." 

Disappearing afar off on the road amidst the trees, he could see 
Custis, graceful always on horseback, accompanied by his wor- 
shipful valet, a negro only a few years older than Custis, who had 
been serving "the young master" from the days of short pants and 
close-fitting round-a-bouts. On each trip, as he turned the corner 
of the Mansion, the Colonel halted, looked after his son, and 
walked on tq the well, "with the dairy-house nigh it;" and then 
back again. At last, as he was "getting on her nerves," he was 
hailed by the mistress of the manse, with the ancient taunt : "a 
penny for your thoughts." 

"I'm thinking of that foolish boy. I'm wondering how to 
circumvent or surround him, and capture him. He's running right 
into an ambush, and I know that he won't heed a warning. I 
must capture him before he is captured. You know what ails the 
foolish boy, don't you?" 

"No, Robert, I don't know it. Custis is not a foolish boy, but a 
very sane young gentleman, and very safe, too." 

"But, Mary Ann, don't you see that he has courtship, love, 
marriage and all of the sequences, right before him? We will 
lose him, and he will throw away his great career. He is shadow- 
ing the rainbow of hope, and the rainbow of promise, with clouds." 

"Now. Robert, you may apprehend that Custis will not obey the 
orders of his father much longer; but I can assure you that he 
will not and don't intend to get away from his mother's apron 
strings. Moreover, Robert. I can assure you that he can't get 
away from his mother's apron strings. I've been weaving them 
carefully for years, and they are strong enough for any emer- 
gency." 

50 



"What does he care for a mother's apron strings? Why, Mary 
Ann, a woman's apron strings are imaginary, anyway.'' 

"Well, Robert, maybe they are, ordinarily; but my apron strings 
are ca'bles. You've never tried them yourself, Robert." 

"Well, of all the mysteries on earth." exclaimed Colonel Lee, 
"I've never been able to, fathom the wild, baseless logic of the 
ladies. You beg the question, always, by jumping to another sub- 
ject. I'm not worrying about your apron strings. I'm worrying 
alx)ut Custis. He's in love, and that's no condition for a soldier 
with his spurs and eagles yet to win." 

"Well, Robert, Custis is now a lawful citizen, full grown, and 
capable o,f doing his own thinking and fully capable of reaching 
his own conclusions. Why worry?" 

"Can't you see, Mary Ann. his stimulated eyes, his blushing 
cheeks. That snip of a girl is not sixteen. Now, Mary Ann, you 
know that she won't do." 

"Won't she, Robert dear? Don't be so sure of that. My 
grand-father married Eleanor Calvert when she was only sixteen ; 
and surely Nellie Custis was a success, a wonderful success." 

"Yes, Mary Ann, your grand-mother was a marvelous woman ; 
but she was an exception." 

"Oh, well, Robert, there are other exceptions. My own mother 
was only sixteen when she came to this mansion as a bride. She 
has been a success in every way. 

"But Charlotte Wickham is a mere child. She can't make a 
man of Custis." 

"Now, take a little time for reflection, Robert. Charlotte has 
good material to work on. Custis is not common clay. He is as 
good as the material that I have been moulding for a quarter of a 
century. 

"Of course, Many, Ann, I know that as well as you do. But he 
will need a good moulder, not a blonde baby in pantalettes." 

"That is mean, Robert, positively mean. Charlotte will have 
intuition and common sense to play her part, just as a young lady 
did right here on this portico in 1830 when a foolish boy came 
from West Point, proud of his new uniform, and made love to 
the girl who could see and foresee that she could make a real 
worth-while man of him." 

Then Mary Ann Lee turned and called to Bow-legs, the ready 
and always smiling valet, saying : "Bowly, bring your master's 
pipe." 

Then she smiled at her beloved husband and said : "Robert, 
it is time for you to go and consult your oracle. Bowly, bring the 
oracle !" 

As he received the long-stemmed pipe Colonel Lee stepped back- 
ward toward his big chair under the tree and said : "The enemy 

51 



is appearing in great force on the horizon, and I will now retire 
while I can retire in goqd order." 

And that was all there was of that. 

Then "Rooney" came to his mother. Almost as tall as his 
father, growing stout, too, this second son of Robert and Mary 
Ann Lee was sixteen years of age, and his mother had always 
"baby-ed" him. He 'brought an Indian-made buck-skin hassock 
and sat upon it, beside his mother, and, looking up at her, began 
very earnestly to tell his troubles, saying : 

"Some day, Mother, and soon, I want you to do something for 
me, and you will, won't you?" 

"Why, I'll do what you want right now, 'Rooney,' if you'll tell 
me all about it. What is it?" 

"Nothing for Pop to hear," the big boy replied in a whisper, 
with a cautious raising of his hands. "Pop wouldn't understand. 
You know Pop is too military and too soldier-like. But you'll 
understand." 

"Come along with me," exclaimed his mother. "Cojine on, 
'Rooney,' and walk your father's ])eat with me for a while. 
We won't let the grass grow up on it." 

After they had turned the corner, his mother took his arm, and 
he told his secret to her, saying : 

"I wanted to ask Custis, but I was ashamed to ask him. So, 
now I want you to tell Charlotte Wickham for me, that I love 
her, and I don't want her to go ofi and get married. I want her 
to wait for me." 

Now, while she was thinking of Custis and of Charlotte, her 
husband had just been telling to her his troubles, and here came 
'Rooney' with another problem for diplomacy. She stopped, 
kissed the anxious lad, who was suffering with his first attack, 
and then she frankly threw forth the facts, saying: 

"Why. niy baby boy 'Rooney,' you are only one year older than 
Charlotte ; yes, less than a year. It will 'be five or six years be- 
fore you can really think of marriage. Lots of things will hap- 
pen in five or six years. Charlotte is not likely to wait that long 
for any one. Every one that sees her falls in love with her, 
women as well as men. Inside of five or six years, Charlotte will 
have to accept some man, or else she will have to refuse a hun- 
dred, or more." 

"But, mother, can't she be told, and asked to wait?"' 

"Why, my boy, I'm so glad you came to your mother about it. 
for your mother knows and understands. Charlotte is a grown 
woman now, and old enough to be married. My own mother 
was only sixteen when she was married to your dear grand-father. 
If any boy of sixteen or seventeen should come to her with a love 
storv — I mean any boy except one she likes as well as she likes 

52 



you — if any other l)oy should go to her witli a love story, she 
would just laugh, and laugh and laugh. I'm afraid, my boy, 
that she would even laugh at you, too. No, no, no, you'd better 
wake up and get up ; or else turn over on your side, for you've 
been dreaming, and it's likely to become a nightmare, if you don't 
wake up." 

"Rooney" leaned his face over on the shoulders of the dear 
mother that he loved so well, and wept like a child ; like the big 
child that he was. While he was still sobbing out his first great 
grief, the voice of his father was heard, saying : 

"Come oft' of my beat. You two are up to mischief of some 
kind. Come off of my beat." 

"Run along, dear 'Rooney' and cry it out under the trees," said 
his very affectionate mother, as she gently and lovingly pushed 
him away towards the big spring, and the home diplomat re- 
turned to engage in a cheerful chat with the Colonel. 

CUSTIS WAS A HUMORIST 

We must now return to the Wickham home, and see the young 
soldier in happy mood, the welcome guest of a superior family; 
a family in which Charlotte was not alone in her anticipation 
that, some day, Custis would be one of the family. Judge Wick- 
ham, reverting to the encomium that Custis had utered concern- 
ing his father, said : 

"Custis, that is a noble sentiment that you have uttered con- 
cerning your father ; the soldier of whom all Virginians are 
proud," 

"It is only what is due to my father," said Custis. 

"Very true," said Judge Wickham, "but fev/ sons appreciate 
their fathers. I wish that I had a son like you." 

"So do I, Papa," said Charlotte. 

Mrs. Wickham said : "Custis, with such an ideal before you. 
we may expect you to be another Washington, the typical Ameri- 
can who never told a lie; whose name you wear so well." 

Custis smiled, and said : "But may be his biographer did some 
lying." 

"But, Custis, don't you believe that story about Washington 
never telling a lie?" inquired Charlotte. 

"I can't say that I doubt it, exactly," said Custis. "Washing- 
ton may have lived without having told a lie. He had one great 
advantage over modern soldiers." 

"What was his advantage, that would have kept him from ever 
telling a lie?" asked Judge Wickham. 

"Well, Sir, he never was a West Point Cadet." 

Charlotte asked "Why, Custis, do you mean to say 

53 



"Joe," the Custis butler, exclaimed: "Massa Custis, Massa 
Castas, Sah, " 

Custis turned and said: "What is the matter, Joe?" 

"Nawthin, Sah, Massa Custis, Sah, Nawthin, Sah." 

"What is it Joe, what's on your mind?" 

"Nawthin, Sah, Massa Custis, Ah was jess thinkin', Sah. dat 
you all nevah tole no lie, nevah vSah, Massa Custis, cause I always 
backs yo up, Massa Custis, Sah, don't I ?" 

Custis smiled and said : "Now Joe, you can back up into the 
kitchen." 

THE COLONEL SURRENDERS 

Colonel Lee was trying to solve a problem and he never went 
to bed with a real problem unsolved, if it was solvable. Concern- 
ing Custis, and his intentions for the immediate future, Colonel 
Lee was intensely interested. He could not throw ofif from his 
mind and take up any other subject until that problem was 
solved. Before going to bed. before sundown, if possible, he was 
determined to reach a conclusion and write upon the last page of 
his problem, after the solution, quod demonstrandum erat. And 
so, after evoking several additional crisp statements in defense of 
Custis and Charlotte, he said : 

"Well, as you seem to favor this match, and seem to believe that 
Charlotte is the proper life companion for Custis. I can count 
on no assistance from you in checkmating or capturing Custis. 
But I am confident that I must break off this affair, before it 
goes any farther." 

"Why Robert, dear, you may as well try to dam up the Potomac 
river with a horse-fly net. Mortal man cannot accomplish the 
impossible. If ever we agree to break off this association, it 
will be I and not you that can accomplish the result." 

"On the contrary," said Colonel Lee, "I believe that I can 
call off Custis, although it may be a little hard on him." 

"Yes, Robert dear, and heart-breaking on me, too. When you 
set your mind on a matter, you must succeed if you have to blow 
up all of the world. You are a soldier, a tactician, a campaigner, 
but I can see clear through your plan in this campaign. It will 
only end in failure and in probable disaster." 

"If you can read my thoughts so well, tell me what my cam- 
paign is to be, and I'll surrender to you," said Colonel Lee. with 
the faint trace of a smile of affection lightening his determined 
face. 

"Why, Robert, that's easy. You intend to go to General Scott 
and have Custis ordered away out in the west, where you used to 
be. "S^ou plan that it will take him away from Charlotte, will do 

54 



Custis no harm, give him a valuable experience which he don't 
need, and that Charlotte will then marry another ; but she won't." 

Colonel Lee arose, kissed his wonderful wife, and said : 

"Mary Ann, my sweetheart, I surrender. That's easy though. 
for I'm getting used to it around home." 

"Why Robert," said Mrs. Lee, "that course would weld them 
together so fast that nothing but death would part them. Char- 
lotte would live on and live on with no God before her daily life 
but Custis Lee. She would be as loyal to him as the sacrament 
of marriage could make her. She would be utterly dead to the 
world of society. She would go nowhere, see no one. and spurn 
any attentions from other men." 

"Now it seems to me that you are drawing heavily on your 
imagination." said the Colonel. 

CONFESSING HER FIRST LOVE 

"On the contrary, Robert, I know all about it. I had just such 
an experience myself, with the first man that I loved, and nothing 
on earth could have driven me away from him. 

"Well, well, well," said Colonel Lee. "Now that you have 
mentioned it yourself, please tell me more about the first man 
that you loved so well ; that you had to fight for. I'm not jealous, 
but curious." 

"Well, I don't mind telling you Robert ; but men are always 
jealous, and sometimes mighty mean about it, too." 

"I'm too old to be jealous. But, my dear Mary Ann, I'm wild 
with curiosity. Did your parents object to him?" 

"No. only my prudent father. My mother did not object. vShe 
would listen to me. But father objected, and it was hard for me 
to keep my hero from knowing it." 

"What became of him, though, if you couldn't give him up? 
How did you break off with him?" 

"I didn't break off with him. My mother had some influence 
with my father, as a good and true wife always ought to have. 
My mother brought my father to his senses, and so I married 
the young man. That's the best way to settle real, genuine love 
affairs." 

CUSTIS AND CHARLOTTE 

remained on the veranda for a little while and then in the Wick- 
ham carry-all went a-visitin' the Fitzhughs, near neighbors ; and, 
returning in the moonlight, Charlotte l)egan her investigation of 
the heart of Custis, asking: 



"Custis, now that you never will go to school any more, of 
course you will soon be married; won't you?" 

"No, Charlotte, not for a very long while." 

"I'm glad of that Custis," said Charlotte. 

"Why, tell me why you're glad of it?" 

Charlotte answered, laughingly: "P*or two reasons. First, no 
ordinary girl is good enough for you; and, second, because I'd 
want to name the girl, when the time comes. Now, Custis, what 
are your reasons?" 

"I have many reasons. First, a Second Lieutenant in the army 
is a dressed up Nobody. Second, a First Lieutenant, is a respec- 
table Nobody, and is spoken to and of by his rank, but usually 
as 'Loot.' Next, only when a man has a double bar on his shoul- 
der, and is known as Captain, is he a Sombody in the army. It 
takes years to get double bars and be called Captain, and be a 
Somebody in the army ; and the girl I love shall not marry a 
Nobody. It may take years, but when the girl I love is married 
she will marry a Somebody; a Captain." 

Dismounting, they entered the mansion, and, very soon. Mother 
Wickham escorted Charlotte to her room. Judge Wickham and 
Custis were seated, and the Judge rang for '*Jim" who answered, 
and the Judge said : 

"Custis, will you join me in a night-cap before retiring?" 

Custis bowed, but remained and continued talking about West 
Point and other matters for another hour, until Judge Wickham 
said, somewhat suggestively, 

"I beg your pardon, Custis, but that night-cap was not a real 
night-cap, after all. We usually go to bed after taking a night- 
cap." 

Custis said: "No, General Wickham, not yet. The Virginia 
night-caps always have two strings, don't they?" 

The Judge called : "Jim, bring those other juleps." 

ROMANCE IN THE AIR 

On a morning in May, 1857. At the Wickham home. Judge 
Wickham, on the broad veranda, was walking back and forth. 
After a while he went to the door and called to the ladies, 
upstairs, for "Jim" was outside the gate, with the horses and 
the handsome coach ready for driving. 

Ustairs. Mrs. Wickham was saying : "We should do our shop- 
ping in Baltimore; and not in Washington. You will not see 
Custis, for he is in charge of engineering at Fort Washington." 

"But, Mother," replied Charlotte, using an old-fashioned and 
sizeable handkerchief over her tear-dimmed eyes ; "but. Mother, 
you know that Custis goes to Washington and reports to the 

5() 



War Department. We can do our little shopping in Washington 
just as well." 

They went downstairs, and coming out on the veranda, Mrs. 
Wickham said : "We have concluded to do our shopping in 
Washington, although we may not do so well as in Baltimore, 
hut, we must not neglect our lonely old friend at Arlington, and 
we can call there, thus making a double journey in one." Then 
they departed, on a beautifully embowered road. 

Earlier, the same morning Lieutenant Custis Lee, at Fort 
Washington, on the Potomac river, started on horseback for 
Washington City. 

At Arlington Mansion. William Henry Fitzhugh ("Rooney") 
Lee and his grand-father were together on the portico, when 
the Wickhams arrived there, on their way to Washington. 

"Rooney" asked Charlotte to drive to town with him in his 
new buggy; a present from Grand-pa. And, the old gentleman 
took Charlotte's place for a ride to the city, for recreation. 

On the way, "Rooney" pleaded with Charlotte to "see Custis 
for me and have me appointed to the army from civil life." 

Charlotte refused. Rooney begged her to do so, saying: 
"Custis will do anything you ask him. He can't refuse YOU." 

Charlotte interestedly inquired: "Are you SURE of that?" 

Rooney replied : 'T KNOW it." 

Misunderstanding, and believing that Rooney knew that Custis 
loved her, Charlotte beamed with happiness and agreed to plead 
the case for Rooney. 

As the two vehicles arrived at the old War Department build- 
ing on Pennsylvania Avenue, near 17th Street, the occupants 
saw, coming along the dust-road on Pennsylvania Avenue, Lieu- 
tenant George Washington Custis Lee, mounted and in uniform ; 
the uniform dusty with the long ride. 

Charlotte went inside the building with Custis, took him by 
the arm, and in the corridor insisted that Custis make some etTort 
at once to get Rooney into the army as a second lieutenant. 
Custis hesitated, but finally said : 

"I will ask General Scott about it." 

Charlotte clasped the hand of Custis in both of her own, and 
standing on her tip-toes, kissed him. She said : 

"It makes me very happy to have Roonev cared for, and pro- 
vided for." 

It never occured to Custis that she wanted Rooney disposed 
of, so that there could be no one between Custis and herself in 
their new home ; the home which her imagination had been pictur- 
ing daily, for several years. 

As they came out of the War Department, Custis said : 

"Charlotte, I will have double bars on my shoulders in a few 
weeks, or maybe in a few days." 

57 



"Oh Custis !" That is all she said, Ijut she meant so much. 

The next morning Lieutenant Custis Lee called on Lieutenant 
General Scott, was admitted, saluted and invited to be seated. 
He stated his case very earnestly, and the calm, kindly-disposed 
physical giant listened with manifest interest to the story. 
P'inally, General Scott said : 

"I will recommend the appointment in writing. I will see the 
Secretary of War. 1 will see President Buchanan, too." 

General Scott called on the Secretary of War, presented a let- 
ter and said : 

"Mr. Secretary here is a matter very near to my heart. I am 
recommending and requesting an appointment in the army from 
civil life for the younger son of Colonel Robert E. Lee. You 
know my high appreciation of Colonel Lee, and you know what 
a magnificent soldier his son Custis has already become. I want 
to obtain your approval of this recommendation, and would like 
to have your permission to go to the President with it, in person, 
to make this rec|uest." 

The Secretary of War then read the following letter : 

PIEADOUARTERS OF THE ARMY 

8th of Alay, 1857. 

Hon. J. B. Floyd, Secretary of War, Sir: I beg to ask that 
one of the vacant lieutenantcies be given to W. H. F. Lee, son 
of Brevet Colonel R. E. Lee, at present on duty against the Co- 
manche Indians. 1 make this application for the extraordinary 
merits of his father, the VERY BEST SOLDIER THAT I 
HAVE EVER SEEN IN THE FIELD. 
Very respectfully, 

WINFIELD SCOTT, 
Lieutenant General, U. S. Army. 

General Floyd gave his endorsement. General Scott went to 
the White House. (There were no wings to the White House 
then.) 

President Buchanan listened to the sincere appeal, and ordered 
the commission to be issued. 

General Scott then sent an orderly to inform Rooney at Ar- 
lington. 

TRIBUTE OF GENERAL SCOTT 

The very next morning an orderly came to Custis with a written 
order directing him to report to General Scott. 

After the customary delay at the door, admission and salute, 
Custis was directed to be seated, while General Scott signed 

58 



papers before him. Then he ordered Cusis to come to him, and 
handed to him his commission as Captain in the regular army, 
and, as he laid his hand on the shoulder of the young man, Gen- 
eral Scott said : 

"Captain Lee, this commission carries with it increased official 
responsibilities. I know that you are prepared for them, and 
capable of meeting every emergency as well as any man could 
meet such responsibilities. 

"But please rememl)er that General Scott told you that your 
responsibilities are greater and more grave than are likely to ever 
fall upon any other captain in our army. You have before you 
the opportunity to render services of increased value to your 
country, and you have before you also, the titanic task of living 
up to the record of your father, a matchless soldier, and an abso- 
lutely honest man. I know Colonel Robert E. Lee, and I tell 
you now, as I have told the Secretary of War, as I have told 
President Buchanan, your father is the greatest soldier now living 
in our country. He is one of the greatest men in this world. It 
behooves a son of Colonel Robert E. Lee to have before him 
always the record of his father, as an inspiration, a bright ori- 
flamme brighter than 'the helmet of Xavarre.' " 

"The Ijravest are the tenderest. 
The loving are the daring." 

and so it was that General Scott saw in the eyes of Captain Lee 
large tears of pride, and then upon his cheeks the glow of de- 
termination, as Custis Lee said : 

"My father is now and always has been my talisman. General 
Scott. Wherever my father goes I will follow ; and no other 
general could lead me more valiantly and courageously. But, 
General Scott, my sword will be brighter, and my courage greater 
by reason of the inspiration that you have given to me ; and I 
will always remember, word for word, what General Scott said 
to me about my father. 1 thank you." 

TRAGEDY THROTTLES ROMANCE 

No sooner had Custis reached his room than he wrote a brief 
letter to Charlotte, because to see her big i)lue eyes gazing ad- 
miringly on the double bars of his rank would be to him as 
glorious as was the Star of Bethlehem to the Magi of the East. 
But the letter was not sent. 

"Of all sad words, of tongue or pen. 

The saddest are these : 
Tt might have been.' " 

59 



In after years General George Washington Custis Lee was 
destined to go into battle frequently ; to face death in all of its 
hideous battle-field forms. But never before in all of his life 
was the man so suddenly surprised, so tried even to the searing 
of his soul as was the young newly-made Captain Custis Lee 
on that day. 

His "Little Brother," the newly appointed Second Lieutenant 
W. H. F. Lee, came to town, went to the War Department, called 
on Custis and immediately on entering the room exclaimed : 

"Custis I've gotten the commission and have been ordered to the 
First Regiment, to go at once to Utah under command of Col. 
Albert Sidney Johnston." 

He did not knovv^ and did not congratulate Custis ; and Custis 
"did not mention his own promotion. He sincerely and enthusi- 
actically congratulated the brother for whom he had obtained 
the appointment, with the aid of the wonderful record of Robert 
E. Lee. "Rooney" hastened to say: 

"While I'm gone, Custis, I want you to look after Charlotte 
Wickham for me. Don't let any fellow beat me there." 

Stricken as with a thunderbolt. Custis remained calm, as he 
asked : 

"Why, Rooney, are you engaged to Charlotte ; engaged to be 
married?" 

"No, not yet, Custis," was the reply. "But Charlotte knows 
of my admiration, and I'm going to ask her to wait for me. I 
know she will. It was on my account that she came after you 
to get my appointment; and you know how much in earnest she 
was. I'll tell her that you will look after her for me ; for you 
will, won't you?" 

Wonderful, miraculous, self-sacrificing Custis Lee! For his 
"Little Brother" then and there, instantly, quietly, calmly Custis 
gave up his love, his first love, his only love, the one sincere love 
of his life time. Calmly, quietly, he made that sacrifice for 
"Rooney." and promised to aid him, as requested. No hero of 
flood or field ever did so much, so grandly, so gracefully. No 
other man on this earth ever made such a heart-breaking and 
complete self-sacrifice, save One; and Custis Lee entered the Gar- 
den of Gethsemane alone, quietly, gently, strengthened by silent 
prayer. The clasp of his hand in the hand of his happy "Little 
Brother" was the assurance of the sincerity of a demi-God. 
I'he fraternal smile that "Rooney" saw was sweet, because it was 
saintly; the saintly spirit of his great-great-grandmother, Martha 
Washington, who worshipped God. and whose husband was her 
shrine. 

r.o 



DAMON AND PYTHIAS WERE OUTCLASSED 

by the eldest son of Robert E. Lee, for tbe younger son of tbat 
well-nigli matcliless American soldier. 

"LOVE took up the harp of life 

Struck on all the chords with might ; 
Struck the chord of SELF, that, trembling, 
Passed, in music, out of sight. 

After the f'eparture of "Rooney" Custis gave way to his grief, 
by walking about the room, sitting down, writing a note and 
tearing it up, sitting with head in his hands, looking upwards to 
heaven, and saying : 

"God bless my dear little brother !" 

Rooney. in uniform, then hastened to the Wickham's home. 
With no evil intent, without any idea of unfairness, certainly 
with no idea of double-dealing, Rooney proceeded to misrepresent 
Custis, mislead Charlotte, and ruin two lives ; for Custis and 
Charlotte were indeed 

"Two souls with but a single thought; 
Two hearts that beat as one." 



THUS HEARTS ARE BROKEN 

"Charlotte, tell me something." said the big-man-size boy, 
"Rooney;" and he continued, "If a girl loves a man will she 
wait for him when he is compelled to be al)sent?" 

"How long must she wait ?" asked Charlotte. 

"Well, if a soldier is ordered away, and hasn't the courage to 
tell of his love, and the girl knows he loves her, will she wait?" 

To Charlotte, that meant Custis, talking through his brother 
as a messenger ; and she replied : 

"For a soldier who loved her, but who did not speak his love the 
^irl who really loved him would wait for him no matter how 
long, provided he let her know of his love somehow." 

"Then, Charlotte, you'll wait, will you?" 

"My soldier, my hero-lover, may be assured that 1 will wait." 

That was meant for Custis, and the message never reached 
him, because "Rooney" understood it to be for himself. 

When they parted, after Rooney had told that he was going 
to far-off Utah, away across "the Great American Desert," the 
happy big boy said : 

"You'll want your soldier to be assured of your love by giving 
a good bye kiss to me, won't you Charlotte?" 

Charlotte gave to Rooney the kiss that she believed she was 

ni 



sending to Ciistis, whom she had loved so long, and who would 
not marry "until the Captain's double bars are received." 

Charlotte did not know that Custis was then wearing the bars 
that he wanted to show to her, but did not, on account of his 
great-hearted unselfishness. He was living the Golden Rule, 
as uttered by the Man of Galilee. 

George Washington Custis Lee, the man she loved and the 
only man that Charlotte Wickham ever loved whole-heartedly, 
was at that very time riding along the Potomac river, on the 
Maryland side of that historic stream, on his way to Fort Wash- 
ington, then an earthwork but of late years an impregnable forti- 
fication and a matchless ofifensive as well as a defensive of the 
national capital city. 

On another road leading to the Wickham home was "Joe" the 
black-skinned slave valet of Captain Custis Lee. He was the 
bearer of a written message of heart-wringing importance to Cap- 
tain Lee, and of heart-breaking importance to beautiful, innocent, 
trusting, hopeful, loving Charlotte ; who, by some outrageous 
fate of ill-fortune was to lose all hope and happiness in this world 
and without cause. Why such things happen, in numerous lives, 
mortal mind cannot fathom. But we hope that 

"In the hereafter angels may. 

Roll the stone from the grave away." 

At the Wickham home, while Captain Custis Lee was on the 
road to Fort Washington, and while his valet was carrying to the 
Wickham home that taste of vinegar, gall and wormwood in a 
written message, the innocent, cheerful, hopeful and girlishly 
happy Charlotte, believing herself to be the prospective bride of 
her own, and the only. Prince Charming, anxiously awaiting — 
yes, impatiently awaiting his coming — went to the window again 
and again, going up stairs at last to obtain a farther view of the 
highway. Back and forth she ran to her mother with chatter and 
queries, finally using the words of the ages of womankind: 

"He Cometh not, she said." 

But there is an end to all disappointment, disaster, sufTering in 
every life. And there is also an end of happiness at some point 
in every human heart. And so the end of all earthly hope was 
coming to Charlotte, for "Joe" appeared, respectfully came to the 
back door of the mansion, delivered his message to Liza, and she 
carried it to the dainty little mistress. 

Smilingly, hastily, hopefully Charlotte opened the wax-sealed 
envelope bearing the Lee coat-of-arms, read the brief farewell, 
and fell down upon the floor in a dead faint. Mother Wickham 
was summoned and came swiftly to the side of her fallen idol, 
and almost fainted herself, for Charlotte never could have ap- 

63 



peared more pale and death-like than she seemed to the anxious 
eyes of Mother Wickham, as she laid prone upo^T. the tioor, holding 
in seemingly lifeless fingers the perfumed paper deathhlow to all 
of the hopes that had been developing and blossoming in her heart 
since with Custis Lee she had roamed the meadows and climbed 
the heights to pluck the first ripe flowers and bear them home in 
childish triumph. These were the brief and em|)hatic words of a 
soldier's farewell : 

"Dear Charlotte : The conditiqn of the work at Fort Washing- 
ton requires my immediate and personal attention. The Depart- 
ment will expect me to remain there on duty until I finish the 
work, and make that defense of the Capital City absolutely im- 
pregnable. Awfully sorry that I can't be with you all today, to 
show you my double-bars. Custis." 

When Charlotte had been restored to consciousness, her 
eyes were turbulent with the opening floodgates of grief. Then 
very gently and sympathetically Mother Wickham said : "As 
tears only can drown a woman's sorrow, I am glad that relief is 
so spontaneous. Cry it all out now, Charlotte ; and then you'll 
cry no more." 

"But, Mother, why didn't he come himself, instead of sending 
his message by Rooney?'' 

"Because he has Government orders, and, as a good soldier, 
he proceeds to obey orders.'' 

"But, Mother, I don't want any Government to come between 
me and Custis. You don't have any one else but your own self 
to give orders to Papa, and no'body else dares to order him." 

"You know, child, I never order your Papa under any circum- 
stances. 

Then, as innocently and unthinkingly as though it were a 
comedy and not a tragedy, Judge Wickham came, saying: "I 
came, Julia dear, to inquire " 

"Never mind about inquiring. Sir; please go back to yqur pipe 
in the library. Charlotte and I are discussing grave problems.'' 
Judge Wickham retired, and Mother Wjckham continued her 
counsels, saying: 

"You should be proud of such distinction and honor as the 
Government confers on Custis." 

"I am proud. Mother dear, but I am so disappointed that he 
did not come to show us his shoulder straps." 

"Just think of it, Charlotte. The Government has sent Custis 
to Fort Washington on the Potomac, giving him charge of the 
defenses of the national capital city. Custis will make that fort as 
strong as Gibraltar." 

(Note, that three years later the same Custis Lee planned and 

03 



prepared the defenses of Richmond, and the Yankees never did 
break through those defenses because they were impregnable. ) 

While Mother and Charlotte Wickham were discussing their 
grave problems, Custis was examining the hills and the surround- 
ing country; then back to his desk planning the improvements of 
defenses ; also worrying about Charlotte and Rooney. Frequently, 
on the hillside, beneath the trees, Custis fell upQn his knees and 
prayed : "Let this cup pass from me :" and no wonder, because 
we know that 

"The groves were God's first temples 

E'er man had learned to hew the shaft 
Or lay the architrave." 



WASHINGTON. LINCOLN AND LEE 

While the "ragged regimentals in their worn continentals" were 
hungering, shivering, freezing, dying at Valley Forge, which was 
the greatest because the most renowned military encampment in 
history, their commander went away often, all alone, into the 
wooded by-ways. It is recorded that an old blacksmith noticed 
the general's horse standing not far from his shop, and he went 
to look for General Washington, followed his footprints in the 
snow, hurried home and reported to his wife that "Washington 
cannot be defeated. He has put on the armor, the breast-plate, 
the sword and buckler of the Lord God Almighty, and he has 
with him the Lord God of Hosts.'' 

Senator Shelby M. Cullom of Illinois, whose young manhood 
was enlightened and elevated by the friendship of Abraham Lin- 
coln, and was in his later years an enlightening and elevating 
influence upon the yqung manhood of the writer, narrated an 
experience which has never been in print. It seems to have been 
lost in the mass and maze of stories concerning that wonderful 
nobleman who lived and died among mortal men in our own land, 
"with malice toward none and with charity for all." 

"Senator Trumbull accompanied me to the White House one 
afternopn," said Senator Cullom. 

"Dark clouds were hovering over the horizon Disasters and 
defeats developed discouragements day after day. Over the minds 
of statesmen at the Capitql apprehension brooded from the rising 
of the sun to the going down of the same. 

"With the purpose of encouraging the serious-minded, care- 
worn President who received us. Senator Trumbull cheerfully 
greeted President Lincoln, saying: 

" 'Mr. President, I hope that you are looking on the bright side 
of affairs. On Capitol Hill we all wqnder that you can do so 

64 



well in these trying times, especially as you have no precedent to 
guide you in anything, judicial, civil or military.' 

"Heartily grasping the hand of Senator Trumbull, and also 
clasping mine, Abraham Lincoln looked straight into the eyes of 
the Senator and squarely turned toward me, and I saw upon the 
face of that grand man a smile of contentment, peace and hope. 
such as few men ever saw ; and Lincoln thrilled me with his man- 
ner and his words. Even now the memory of his wonderful smile, 
his confident manner thrill me. He very earnestly said : 

" 'Thank you. Senator Trumbull for every word of encourage- 
ment. But, please tell the 'boys on Capitol Hill that I have prece- 
dents for everything. Tell them all that I shall commit no dan- 
gerous error ; that I shall not blunder, because I have precedents, 
and I carefully follow them. I get my precedents, Trumbull, by 
my bedside at night. I get them while I am on my knees. I seek 
my precedents then and there ; and they come to me from the 
source of all wisdom.' 

"As we were going away Senator Trumbull turned around, 
went back and grasped the hand of the President, saying : 

" 'Abe Lincoln, you are simply a wonder !' 

"Then the great big man seemed to> grow even larger as he said : 

" Tm glad that you think so, Lyman. In fact, I wish that all 
of our people, every man and woman and child in our beloved 
country, would trust me and look on me in some sense as a won- 
der. I do so want their trusting confidence for the welfare of all 
of us, and not for myself. For, Trumbull, 'why should the spirit 
of mortal be proud?'" 

"I have always felt and believed that I saw and heard Abraham 
Lincoln in one of his greatest moments, when his spirit was in 
touch with the Great Spirit that sent him to us." 

And Custis Lee, like George Washington and all other men 
truly great, sought wisdom at the Source of Wisdom, and found 
it; for it is written, "Knock and it shall be qpened unto you." 

BOUQUETS AND JEWELS OF MEMORY 

Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, whether that desire shall be 
uttered or unexpressed. Prayers are petitions, usually vain 
vagaries of solicitation for self-interest, for self-advancements. 
The man or the woman who has not bowed in fervent prayer has 
not begun to develop educated intelligence. Custis Lee did not 
seek the Throne of Grace for himself. As Washington went to 
his knees in the snow, and as Lincoln went to his knees on the 
treeless prairies, beside his cot in a log cabin, and in the White 
House, each one of them petitioning divine help for his soldiers, 
for his country, for civilization, so Custis Lee prayed that strength 
and beauty, happiness and home might be given to Charlotte. 



But for himself he was as resigned and humble as was the One 
whose most earnest petition was : "Father, forgive them. They 
know not what they do." 

"The night has a thousand eyes. 
The day, but one ; 
The light of the whole life dies 
When love is done." 

Thus it was with Custis Lee. Charlotte Wickham had been 
the light of his life, his day-star of hope. She had been his pillar 
of fire by night, and his pillar of cloud by day. But the heroic 
soul was living during all of the following days and years in 
prayer and hope only for her happiness, and not for his own. 
Work, work and more work claimed and commanded his atten- 
tion. But in the silent midnight watches Charlotte came to his 
memories and in the unconscious cerebrations of his dreams. 
Always and evermore she was appearing sweetly to him and lov- 
ingly in memory. Dearer and dearer she grew. In the minds of 
other men bereaved, the bouquets of memory are shorn of their 
beauty and of their fragrance by envy, jealousy or revenge. The 
jewels of memory are dimmed into base and 'beclouded glass, by 
resentments and wrath. But in the mind of Custis Lee there 
came brightness, fragrance, sweetness, adoration and obeisance, 
in every memory vision of the loved and lost. 



HUMAN HEART.S AND CUPID'S DARTS 

"In the spring a livelier iris 

Shines upon the burnished dove; : .■ 

In the spring a young man's fancy 
Lightlv turns to thoughts of love." 

It was in the wonderful springtime of the year 1850 that the 
ambitious youth, Custis Lee, noted that Charlotte Wickham was 
taking more than a second glance at him, that she was seeking his 
side from time to time and leaving "Rooney" and the games that 
they had been playing together for so long a time. It was the 
springtime of Saint Patrick and of She-ila ; the springtime of the 
Pc\tomac and Shenandoah valleys, the season that seems an exact 
duplicate to that springtime of beautiful Ireland, the springtime 
that travel and experience only can comprehend. It was the 
springtime when some parts of the country are yet purely clad 
in the white velvet raiment of winter ; that season when the trail- 
ing arbutus with its lovely blush of pink reflected the peach bloom 
of nature on the cheek of little Charlotte ; and young Custis knew, 
as well as Charlotte knew, that each one of them was gazing into 

66 



the eyes of a soulmate and a helpmate ; that Mother Nature had 
already proclaimed that "they twain shall be one tlesh." 

In that wonderful springtime, the most wonderful of all the 
seasons in the memories of Custis and Charlotte, they went to- 
gether one bright and crisp morning to brush aside the soggy 
leaves, peer beneath the spots of snow and crush away the lin- 
gering gritty snow-ice so that they could find those modest little 
arbutus faces 'blushing and smiling, while they at the same time 
breathed forth that indescribable perfume of spicy fragrance 
from the roots in the soil ; blushing trailing arbutus imitating the 
cheeks of human softness that Charlotte wore and that Custis 
caressed and kissed; wonderfully beautiful cheeks they were, 
blushing and laughing, and they gathered the rich vegetation that 
was clinging to the craggy crevices ; and as they wandered home- 
ward Charlotte was the human trailing arbutus, clinging and real- 
izing, mere child that she was, that she had learned of love ; and 
she knew that Custis would always be her own Custis, for she 
knew, as all women know, that 

"Men are only boys, grown tall. 
And hearts don't change much, after all." 

And so it happened that in the springtime of nine years after- 
wards, the memory of Custis was bright as a spotlight ; and in the 
light of that memory he knew that during all of the days of this 
earth life and during all of the coming eternity his thoughts would 
turn to Charlotte evermore. Realizing that it "is better to have 
loved and lost than never to have loved at all." Captain George 
Washington Custis Lee did not deceive himself. On the contrary, 
as he gave up the love of his youth, the only love of his life, for 
his brother, the most knightly and noble man of that age suffered 
as only could suffer a "man of sorrows and acquainted with 
grief." Others could not see the crown of thorns that he had 
placed upon his own brow, nor could his fellow men know that he 
had crucified himself because he so loved his brother that he gave 
up his life's love for him that Roonev might be contented and 
happy. 

GREATER LOVE THAN THIS HATH NO MAN 

and yet, Custis Lee had other crosses to bear as he went forward 
•on the pathway toward Gethsemane and into the garden alone, 
that he might leave to American history such a life of grandeur 
and self-abnegation as to obscure with its Spirit of Calvary all 
of the deeds of all other American knights of old. in the days of 
all days when the most marvelous, brave, bold, and heroic knight- 
liood of America was most gloriously in flower. 

67 



Thus it was, with fuU reahzation of his own everlasting loneh- 
ness, that Captain Custis Lee entrained for the Far West of the 
Pacific coast, facing a future that beckoned him only toward more 
perilous heights and more Balaklava heroisms from day to day ; 
for already the war clouds were gathering and darkening the 
horizons of all who were capalile of prophetic reflections. Truly 
great men, North and South, could 

"Hear the loud alarum bells. 

Brazen 'bells ! 
What a tale of terror now their turbulency tells. 

In the startled air of night 

How they scream out their afifright. 
Too much horrified to speak— 
They can only shriek, shriek, and shriek, 

Out of tune." 



CAPTURING COMANCHE INDIANS 

Light-hearted Lieutenant "Roonev," proudly wearing his new 
uniform, with barless shoulder straps, mounted his thoroughbred 
after bidding goodbye to his proud mother on the unbounded 
sward of the Arlington Mansion, and down the old military road 
he went trotting, on his first march to the front. It was in the 
year of the comet, 1857. 

Over the old national turnpike from Baltimore to Wheeling 
all of the soldiers bound to the battle fronts in the War with 
Mexico had traveled ; and over that turnpike went Rooney. At 
Wheeling he went aboard the famous old racing stern-wheel 
steamboat, "The Tom Swan," there meeting with his superior 
officer, Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston, who was afterwards to 
win fame in the field as a general and find death in battle, under 
another flag. 

Together they traveled to Cairo, on the Ohio River, and there 
they entered the Mississippi River, on which stream they pro- 
ceeded to Saint Louis. On that broad stretch of water the Queen 
of the Ohio River ran an exciting race with the old-line Missis- 
sippi racer, "The Sucker State," the singular name being the- 
nick-name of the State of Illinois ; and the race was won by 
the Ohio River speeder. From the steamer's decks they could 
see the comet in the sky. 

Then on a slow meander they ascended the Missouri River, 
and traveled from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Riley — a trip which 
was really exciting to young Rooney. who had never before seen 
the boundless and trackless prairies of the "Great American 
Desert." as that region, then unexplored, was generally known. 
Nor had Rooney ever seen cavalry troops equipped for campaign- 

68 



ing and accompanied 'by tremendous supply trains; for, in those 
days of the western frontier, it was necessary for the troops to 
carry with them food for themselves and their horses. Those 
prairies were indeed as f oodless as Sahara itself , worse, indeed, 
for there were no such houses of refuge, no oases at all. It was 
a wonderful experience for the young lieutenant, in the year of 
the comet of '57. 

Colonel Johnston led his regiment across the plains to Salt Lake 
City, and there the men saw the original Mormon Temple, which 
was an enlarged duplication of their great Temple at Nauvoo. 
Illinois, in the earlier years of their newly-established religion. 

On their way tremendous herds or hordes of bufifaloes were 
seen and many of them were killed for food. There were two 
encounters with Indians, both of them at night, when the savages 
attempted to stampede the horses and cattle, and to rob the supply 
train. Those were exciting occasions fcr the young lieutenant, 
who had known nothing but ease and comfort, nothing but the 
gentilities and luxuries of civilization in its sweetest cradle, the 
gentility of Old Virginia. 

Not many miles, away, but beyond vision, far out of touch or 
communication, was Colonel Robert E. Lee, leading his little army 
in an eventful campaign against the Comanche Indians, a fierce, 
fearless and energetic tril)e. There were no trains, no telegraphs, 
no telephones, no wired nor wireless stations ; nor any such mira- 
cle as a man flying in the air. So, without seeing or communicat- 
ing with his son, who was only a few miles away. Colonel Robert 
E. Lee conducted his campaign, won his victories, subdued the 
savages, captured the head chief and sub-chiefs, made a treaty 
that lasted ; and then, he was summoned to army headquarters at 
Washington — summoned by letter that came by pony express. 

Colonel Lee was greeted again as a military hero, congratulated 
by the Secretary of War, by his ardent admiring military friend. 
Lieutenant-general Winfield Scott, the greatest living American 
soldier; and, a'bove all. by President Janies Buchanan, who pub- 
licly commended him. 

Then, out of the West came "Old Ossawatamie Brown," the 
unfortunate and insane philanthropist who wanted to give to the 
negro slaves a freedom which they did not seek, and did not want, 
for the word "liberty" was unknown to them. As the greatest 
of all freedmen, Frederick Douglas, said, twenty-five years later, 
"The natives of Africa never accomplished anything, nor are they 
likely to accomplish anything, without the aid, encouragement and 
co-operation of the white men." 

Captain J. E. B. Stuart, who had been on duty in Kansas for 
many years, accompanied Colonel Lee to Harper's Ferry, where 
old John Brown and his followers were assembled in the ware- 

69 



house afterwards known as John Brown's Fort. They were 
captured, of course, and "Old Ossawatamie" was identified by 
Captain Stuart, who knew him weU. 

ROONEY'S RESIGNATION 

Two years of army hfe; two years of absence from Charlotte 
Wickham, the girl who loved his elder brother, but whom Rooney 
loved so that she filled his waking thoughts and crowded from his 
dreams all other pictures ; two years of planning for wife, home, 
children, and with Charlotte in every picture, and Rooney resigned 
from the army. 

Letters from Charlotte, in reply to his love letters, were not 
such warm responses as he desired. Rooney dreamed of rivals 
that never livecl, save in his imagination. 

Dear old Mother Wickham, wise, gentle, prophetic, inspired 
as she must have been, sent Charlotte visiting the Fitzhughs in 
Warwick County, not far from Old Point Comfort ; but Mother 
Wickham took the Judge with her to visit the lovely, wifeless old 
gentleman, George Washington Parke Custis, and his charming 
daughter, Mary Ann Randolph, the wife of Colonel Robert E. Lee. 

Only because it was necessary to go first to Baltimore, and 
next to Washington, did Rooney go to Arlington at the close of 
his trip eastward ; and there, fortunately for him he met Mother 
Wickham ; and, it was exceedingly fortunate for Charlotte, that 
she had such a wonderful mother, then and there. Mother Wick- 
ham took Rooney to the portico, to the gardens, the walks in 
the woods, where he wanted to be with Charlotte, but Mother 
Wickham entertained him. Gradually she explained to him that 
Charlotte did not love him ; that he must go and win her, but 
not take his conquest for granted. She never told of Custis; 
and Charlotte never told of Custis. 

MOTHERLY MANAGEMENT 

]\Iother Wickham never gave orders to her gentle husband, 
as we have seen ; and, of course, she would not presume to give 
orders to a son-in-law ; no indeed. Kindly and very gently she 
explained to Rooney that it would be wise for him to remain at 
Arlington for a week or two and give Mother Wickham time 
to go to Charlotte and intercede in behalf of Rooney. Her efforts 
were disregarded ; of course, in a very refined and gentlemanly 
manner. But, Rooney wanted no mediator. He was young. He 
was self-confident. Like every other boy of 22 or 3, he was a 
self-conceited, self-important, aggressive entity; and he pro- 
claimed his intention of leaving immediately for Fortress Monroe, 
letting it be known at Arlington that he was going to see and 
win Charlotte, and that he would brook no delay. 



If Rooney could only have known what a strong character 
dwelt hehind those great grey eyes ; he would have heeded Mother 
Wickham. He did not know that on the following Sunday 
morning Charlotte Wickham was to sing in old Saint John's 
church, at Hampton, Virginia; nor that she would he spending 
Saturday night at the famous old Hygeia Hotel at Old Point, as 
the guest of the Misses Ashby. 

While Rooney was wending his way to Richmond by rail, 
intending to travel by steamboat on the James River and through 
Hampton Ivoads to Old Point, the determined and wise Alother 
Wickham was piloting the Judge to the little telegraph office in 
the ancient hotel on the corner of Sixth Street and Pennsylvania 
Avenue, in Washington City. 

Telegraphing was something new, something expensive; but 
Mother Wickham telegraphed to Charlotte, at Old Point, as 
follows : 

"Prepare to leave church; go to Norfolk, take first river 
steamer for home. Calamity coming must be avoided." 

Charlotte was astounded. She only realized that something- 
terrible had happened or would happen. She knew W. H. F. Lee 
by his nickname of Rooney ; but she never dreamed of having 
Calamity used as a cipher code for his name. 

In those days neighbors were neighbors, and the aristocracy of 
Virginia was one family. The Ashbys were fretted and worried ; 
but they helped prepare Charlotte to leave for home as soon as 
the church services were concluded. 

It is a tradition of the family that Charlotte sang on that 
Sunday morning as no other soprano had ever sang in old Saint 
John's ; but that the excitement of that telegram, followed by 
the apprehensions and the anxiety, marked the beginning of a 
nervous breakdown which followed many days and weeks and 
months afterwards. 

Judge Wickham, with Jim attending him, went to Washington 
to meet with Charlotte ; and the Judge found it exceedingly diffi- 
cult to explain the calamity impending, because Mother 
Wickham knew the man habit of conversation, with juleps. She 
had kept her own counsel. 

When they reached home Charlotte was gratified to see her 
mother, for, among other vain imaginings had been the belief 
that her mother was dangerously ill. She wanted full explana- 
tions immediately, but did not get them until long after tea time. 
Then Mother Wickham explained to Charlotte that waiting for 
Custis was, had been and would be useless. That was all that 
Charlotte could endure for one night ; and that was all that 
Mother Wickham told her. 

"Mother, oh. Mother, if I could only have remained at Fortress 
Monroe, the companionships and the entertainments would have 
helped me weather this storm." 

71 



"Maybe, Charlotte," was the reply; "but there is a pending 
trial that must be met with right here ; and here only." 

"No, no, no, child; not now. First, let all of those tears have 
vent until they are gone. You must realize, first of all, that 
Charlotte Wickham, the little sweetheart that loved Custis Lee, 
is dead and buried. Another spirit has taken her place in your 
body and brain. I can only talk further to you when you realize 
that you are now a woman of the world; that you must think 
and act accordingly. Go and finish the necessary weeping for 
the lost Custis ; for, he's lost." 

MOTHER WICKHAM'S WISDOM 

"We may loam throughout life and dear friends may abound. 
We may share of their love as they circle us round. 
But nowhere on earth can afl:ection be found 

Like the love in the heart of a mother." 

Charlotte Wickham was very fortunate in having a wonderful 
mother particularly at that crucial period. While she was con- 
tiuing from day to day to express her regret that she could not 
have remained at Fortress Monroe, her mother was emphasizing 
to her the fact that Custis Lee was lost to her forever. 

It would be impossible for anyone to describe the heart throbs 
and brainstorms of Charlotte Wickham, because Custis Lee was 
her Napoleon of military affairs, her Lord Chesterfield of society, 
her Prince Charming in every respect ; a character as near per- 
fection as the worshipful admiration of a sincere and brilliant girl 
in love could create it. Mother Wickham knew and did not 
undertake to deny that Custis Lee was all that Charlotte had 
imagined him to be, and that he was worthy of the aft'ection she 
had given him from her childhood ; but she knew that Custis 
would not stand in the way of his little brother, when the entire 
impulses of Rooney were centered upon having Charlotte Wick- 
ham for his wife. 

It was not generally known at that time, nor is it now nationally 
comprehended, that the aristocracy of Virginia was the nucleus 
of a palpably developing nobility in this land which was founded 
upon a legal fiction which still endures, that "all men are created 
equal." 

As the men and women of nobility of the monarchial countries 
marry only within their classes, so did the nobility of Virginia, 
and practically all of the States south of Mason and Dixon's 
line, marry within the limits of their own classes ; and Mother 
Wickham vividly described what actually occurred at Fortress 
Monroe when Rooney Lee arrived there. Of course she knew 
nothing of telepathy, and yet she must have had telepathic com- 
munications when she explained to Charlotte in substantially 
these words : 



"Not only is Custis, whom you love so devotedly, but also is 
Rooney, the grand-son of Light Horse Harry Lee, the son of 
Colonel Robert E. Lee, the grand-son of George Washington 
Parke Custis and Mary Lee Fitzhugh ; but both of the boys are 
great-great-grand-sons of Martha Washington. With such a 
lineage, Charlotte, you must understand that when Rooney Lee 
arrives at Old Point Comfort all of the girls of the best families 
of Virginia will be seeking recognition from him. It ill becomes 
my daughter, as it would ill become the daughter of any other 
first family of Virginia, to turn her back upon Rooney Lee, espe- 
cially when our society world would know that there could be 
no other reason for such an action except a hopeless love for 
his brother, Custis, whom I am sure will not marry you nor 
anyone else, because he has determined to remain a bachelor." 

As a matter of fact as soon as Rooney Lee arrived at the old 
Hygeia Hotel there was a buzz of excitement extending to 
Fortress Monroe and all over the settlements of Old Point 
Comfort. But Rooney Lee was not there for social honor nor 
distinction. He was still wearing the uniform of a second lieu- 
tenant in the army because he had not yet received the acceptance 
of his resignation ; and brass buttons were as bright and attrac- 
tive in 1859 as they are until this day. Having known that 
Charlotte had been a guest of the Ashby girls, Rooney sought 
them and them alone. When he ascertained from Mamie and 
Minnie Ashby that Charlotte had returned to her home, the 
young man retired to his room in the hotel and declined to take 
any part in social activities. He remained alone until the 
morning when he could obtain passage on a boat returning up the 
James River to Richmond and from there to Washington by the 
first train. 

FLANK MOVEMENT OF CUSTIS LEE 

Of course the young military genius, whose engineering skill 
had already attracted the attention of President Buchanan, the 
Secretary of War, and Lieutenant-General Winfield Scott, was 
well informed concerning the movements of Charlotte Wickham 
to whom his heart was given eternally, and because of whom he 
had determined to remain a bachelor, as he did during his long 
life. Custis Lee personally went to General Winfield Scott and 
asked that he be ordered to San Francisco, and General Scott 
cheerfully gave the order, saying: 

"The defenses of San Francisco need the most careful atten- 
tion of a skillful military engineer and I am very sure, Custis, 
that you are the ablest military engineer in our army today 
excepting only your matchless father, Colonel Robert E. Lee, 
to whom I owed everything in achieving the successes that came 
to my army during the war with Mexico." 

73 



And thus while Rooney Lee was attempting to win the girl 
who loved his brother, and whom his brother loved with such 
indescribable intensity ; and while Mother Wickham was wisely 
reasoning with Charlotte, the young lady received a brief note 
from Custis Lee announcing that because of an immediate order 
from the lieutenant-general of the army, it was necessary for 
him to leave for San Francisco without delay, and that therefore, 
to his deep regret, it would be impossible for him to call and 
say *'good-bye" to her and to the father and mother whom he 
held in such high esteem. 

MIRACULOUSLY MASTF.R OF HIS SOUL 

You have heard minstrels singing "The days of old when 
Knights were bold and barons held their sway," but those days 
of old are imaginary and the Knights so bold are mythical. The 
barons who held their sway in the gradual development of civiliza- 
tion were robber barons and prodigious criminals unworthy of 
respect much less of praise. Our own American knight errant 
was clean and pure; the master of his own soul. 

Ever since Captain John Smith, Newport and the other ven- 
turesome spirits sailed through Hampton Roads to Jamestown 
Island, Knighthood has been in flower in the United vStates ; and 
on every occasion when heroism has been required our knights 
were bold, as the vanquished foeman of other nations must 
testify in their histories. 

Knighthood, always in flower in America, was particularly bold 
and brilliant, magnificent and chivalric in the days of Abraham 
Lincoln and JelTerson Davis, in the days of U. S. Grant and Rob- 
ert E. Lee; and thus it is, particularly of the period when our 
knighthood was especially in flower, that we now sing of arms 
and a hero. 

CHARLOTTE'S MAD VENTURE 

On the morning after Mother Wickham had finally convinced 
Charlotte that she must not reject but welcome the attentions of 
the younger son of Colonel Robert E. Lee, Charlotte called for 
a carriage and horses in order to drive across the country to 
Ravensworth for a brief visit to Margaret Dickins. You must 
know that Asbury Dickins was Secretary of the United States 
Senate for well night half a century. His eldest son, Frank, 
married Margaret Randolph, whose mother had been an Ashby, 
and so Charlotte was going to visit one of the bluebloods of old 
\^irginia when she went calling upon Margaret Dickins. 

Old Jim. the family butler, was surprised but reticent when 
the visit at Ravensworth w^as concluded inside of five minutes 

:4 



and he was told to drive to Arlington. The order of course was 
obeyed and early in the afternoon Charlotte Wickham arrived 
at Arlington Mansion to find there only the wife of Colonel Rob- 
ert E. Lee to receive her. Custis was preparing to leave Wash- 
ington for San Francisco and Rooney was on his way to the 
home of Judge Wickham. Of course Charlotte remained over 
night at Arlington Mansion and on the following morning was 
accompanied to Washington by the mother of Custis Lee whom 
she had determined to see before he should leave for the Pacific 
Coast. 

To the surprise of Custis Lee when he came to his office before 
noon after having said "good-bye" to the Secretary of War and 
General Scotr, his mother greeted him on the threshold and in- 
side the office door he found Charlotte Wickham. His mother 
walked away, leaving the two young people together while she 
visited Miss Harriet Lane at the Wliite House. 

INCOMPARABLE LOVE AND SELF-SACRIFICE 

Without delay and without the prevailing mockery of maidenly 
modesty which prevails and causes misunderstanding and separa- 
tion among worthy and loyal hearts in all countries, in every 
nation and in every clime, Charlotte went to Custis, stood beside 
him as he arose from his desk, put her hands on his shoulders, 
looked into his eyes with her piercingly penetrating big eyes of 
baby blue, kissed him, and he clasped her in his arms. vShe laid 
her head triumphant on his shoulder and asked, smilingly and 
roguishly : 

"Did you think that you could crucify me for nothing Custis; 
and why have you tried it?" 

Wise, wonderful, inspired Custis Lee ! Ordinarily no mortal 
man could have maintained his determination and divine purpose. 
But, Custis Lee always had reserve strength from some invisible 
source. His life is proof of the words of inspiration, attributed 
to Shakespeare: "There's a divinity that doth shape our ends." 

Without wholly releasing his clasp of the willowy wonder 
woman, Custis smiled at her as afifectionately as she might have 
wished or fore-ordained, but he did not return her kiss. Still 
holding her as she desired. Custis replied: 

"My dear friend and chum of childhood, no mortal man would 
intentionally cause you pain: much less crucify you. Of all men 
I would certainly be the last to try to hurt you. And, of all men 
in the world I am the one who would be the first to defend and 
help you ; even to give his life for you. So you have been mis- 
judging me.'" 

"Then tell me why you intended to go away without seeing 
me ; why you really did go away so cruelly, because that was your 

75 



course when I came here, in so iinmaidenly a manner, and inter- 
rupted your purpose. What is the cause, if there is a cause, of 
your utterly causeless rudeness to me ?" 

"Be seated Charlotte," said Custis drawing a large office chair 
towards him. As he was gently lowering her to the chair, she 
arose, leaned her head again on his shoulder, and said : 

"I prefer standing, Custis, just as I am." 

But as Custis put forth some force, she yielded, sat down and 
was almost lost in the big leather-covered office chair, which 
was really big enough for General Scott. Then Custis said : 

"Charlotte, you are selfish, extremely selfish. That is not a 
complaint, nor is it fault-finding. It is merely an expressive 
way of compelling you to understand that you are a woman, and, 
like all other women, you want your own way. If you can't 
reach the particular apple in the particular tree that you want, you 
select the Adam that will suit you, and make him reach the apple 
or climb the tree. That apple you must have and have it imme- 
diately in preference to your soul's salvation. You have elected 
me for your Adam, and would lead me into the Garden of Eden, 
s(» that I shall get the apple that you want and place it in your 
hands, even if I only get the core or the peelings. 

"But Charlotte, I am also a bit selfish. In fact I am almost 
meanly selfish. I have reasoned out the problem of life logically, 
and am wedded to my military career. I am so wedded to that 
idea, and so determined to be successful in my career, that I 
am going to San Francisco tonight even if I never see my mother, 
father, or other relatives again in this world." 

"You are selfish, Custis, selfish as a fiend of Hell," said Char- 
lotte angrily, and she added : "You have deceived me and all of 
your friends for you have always seemed to be truly human. To- 
day you manifest an inhuman character that you have never 
revealed to any one else. It is mysterious, maddening, angering, 
and brutal." 

"My other side," said Custis, smilingly, "is a side of my char- 
acter that I have flattered you in revealing. Only to one whom 
I respect, esteem, admire and love would I so reveal my sel- 
fishness." 

MOTHER I,EE LEARNED SOMETHING 

Knocking at the door, Mother Lee entered. When Charlotte 
arose, without saying good-bye to Custis, her moistened eyes 
were blazing with angry disappointment, and she said to Mother 
lyce : 

"I will wait while you say 'good-bye' to Custis." 

7fi 



On the way back across the long bridge, Mother Lee ventured 
to ask Charlotte if she had quarreled with Custis and her reply 
was : 

"No. we have had no quarrel but a disagreement; we do not 
understand each other; I do not understand Custis and he does 
not understand me. The misunderstanding is so great that it is 
not likely that we ever again shall meet." 

How true it is that "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.*' 

Mother Lee was diplomatically wise, prudent, and knew when 
she should be reticent ; and so she asked no further questions. 
But she was a mother, and she noted that Charlotte had left her 
glorious son Custis with abruptness, not to say rudeness. 
Quietly, Modier Lee resented that well-nigh unpardonable sin. 
But she was a hostess, and Charlotte was her guest. Mother Lee 
was a woman of the world also, and it was clear to her that there 
had been a lover's quarrel. Of course, it could not be the fault 
of her son; and, if Charlotte started anything unpleasant in 
■conversation, Mrs. Lee was ready with her polite and well-l)red 
defense of her own, her first born, Custis. 

Before they had reached the Long Bridge Mother Lee had 
noted the frequent sighs, the deep sighs, and the dew drops on 
the peach-blown cheeks of Charlotte, and they had dampened the 
fire of her motherly resentment. As they came to the bridge one 
of the sighs of Charlotte burst forth into an uncontrollable and 
almost heart-breaking sob. 

Clatter, clatter, clatter sounded the heavy hoof-beats of a pur- 
suing horseman, and they were overtaken by an orderly with a 
note to Mother Lee from Custis. As there was to be no answer, 
the orderly saluted and rode away, as Mother Lee was opening 
the note. These were the words : 

"Mother, dear; be kind and gentle with Charlotte now and 
always. She is pure gold. Always be kind to her, and love her 
for my sake always. Hastily, Custis." 

Without hesitation, knowing her son so well, and knowing well 
also his long-cherished love for Charlotte, Mother Lee smothered 
her resentment, took Charlotte into her arms and "Mothered her" 
all the way home to Arlington. On the following day Mother 
Lee accompanied Charlotte to her own home ; and there was 
considerable excitement in that home when the run-away child 
returned with a high fever, so that she was obliged to go to her 
bed at once. The old family physician was sent for; and he 
could do no harm. But he could do no good, for 

"Who can minister to a mind diseased?" 

The two mothers exchanged confidences. Then they both un- 
derstood. They always understood ; and they wisely co-operated 
ever afterwards. 



THAT WONDERFUL WIFE AND MOTHER 

"You have been absent without leave," was the greeting with 
which Mary Ann Randolph Lee was met when she returned to 
Arlington ; and on the portico she saw the Colonel, who had 
been at Fortress Monroe when she went away with Charlotte 
Wickham. Saluting her formally, the Colonel said : "Has it been 
desertion, or French leave? State your case." 

His military salute was utterly ruined and his dignity sent to 
the scrap heap, by a slap on one cheek, a kiss on the other, and 
then another kiss and love-tap, back and forth. The answer 
was this : 

"Robert, dear, you can't imagine how glad I am to see you 
home again, and just at this time. I have been carrying out your 
most peremptory orders, and have accomplished the purpose of 
your plans. 1 have been to the Wickham's and have come to 
report that Custis will not marry Charlotte. She has given him 
up; and he has declared that he will always remain a bachelor." 

Then the Colonel scrapped some bit of dignity himself, kissed 
his wife, picked her up bodily, carried her up the big stone steps, 
and sat in Grand-pa Custis's big rocking chair, holding on his 
knees the girl with gray curls that he loved so well, with her arm 
around his neck. And he with hair and beard grown gray, too. 
They don't give us such pictures in the "movies." 

"But, Robert dearest," she continued, "we are to have Char- 
lotte in the family any way. That can't be helped. She is going 
to marry 'Rooney.' What do you think of that?" 

"Glory be," exclaimed the Colonel. " 'Glory be,' as my old 
Irish house man, 'Rooney Flaherty' used to shout ; only 'Rooney' 
always needed un-corked stimulant to make him appear at his 
best, or his loudest. 'Glory be,' for I really love Charlotte, oh, so 
much. I feel that Custis has before him a military career of 
renown. But our 'Rooney' is a home boy, and he will make such 
a perfect husband as the perfect little angel deserves to have. 
Again I say, 'Glory be' and another kiss for you, Mary Ann. You 
are an adjutant worth while." 

MOTHER WICKHAM ON GENEALOGY 

Wisely and patiently Mother Wickham waited until her recal- 
citrant daughter could reason with her own self concerning her 
insanely selfish escapade, and its frightful failure. ]\Iother 
Wickham knew that each youthful brain will always insist that 
its reasoning is superior to that of all others ; will resort to every 
conceivable logical fallacy to prove that wrong is right. But, 
Mother Wickham also knew that after the rebellious renegade 
reasoning of youth has exhausted itself against the impenetrable 

78 



walls of eternal truth, that exhausted youthful brain will seek 
sympathy; and that's the time for a Mother to step in and fill the 
logical gap with genuine sympathy and words of comfort. And 
so, when Charlotte began to call for 

MOTHER, MOTHER, MOTHER 

her wails were answered promptly by Mother Wickham who took 
to her arms the weeping grown-up baby girl who wanted to weep 
her last burning tears while those comforting arms were around 
her. Charlotte had at last surrendered. The bright little girl was, 
as Mother Wickham had told her, a thing of the past ; and Char- 
lotte had become a woman of the world. Every woman knows 
what a hard lesson that is to learn ; for every woman knows that 
such a lesson need never be learned but for the fact that this is 
indeed a wicked world. And so, Mother Wickham began to teach 
the lessons of family pride. She said : 

"Of all the families in the Old Dominion that trace their 
ancestry back to the earliest possible beginnings in the old world. 
the oldest family tree is that of the Lees; for, Charlotte, you must 
realize what an ancient family it is when you know that the Lees 
trace their ancestry back to Lionel Lee, who distinguished himself 
in the Siege of Acre, and who received numerous recognitions In' 
his sovereign. There is no family in this country that can point 
with pride to such lineage. Remember also that both Custis and 
Rooney Lee are related to the Custises, the Dandridges, the Fitz- 
hughs, the Calverts, to Lord Baltimore, and to the Randolphs. 

"You cannot realize how proud I have been nor how proud 
your father has been while we were anticipating the marriage of 
our daughter to the eldest son of Colonel Robert E. Lee ; in fact. 
we are dreadfully disappointed with the change which has come 
over Custis. But, Charlotte, we are just as proud of a marital 
alliance with the younger son of Colonel Robert E. Lee; for we 
know that there are many young ladies of the nobility of Great 
Britain who would be glad to make and would be proud of such 
an alliance, for there is no older nor nobler family in all of Europe. 
So, you must turn to Rooney, welcome him, and be proud of his 
attentions, for his attentions are distinguishing to you and ti> 
all of us." 

"How'er it be, it seems to me 
'Tis only noble to be good ; 
Kind hearts are more than coronets. 
And simple faith, than Norman l>lood. 

"Trust me. Clara Vere de Vere, 

From yon blue heavens above us bent. 
The Gardener, Adam, and his wife 
Smile at the claims of long descent." 

. TO 



Mother Wickham had never heard of that philosophy of Tenny- 
son, and Tennyson had never known of the Lees and other aris- 
tocracies that were developing in our repubhc; and, of course, 
Charlotte knew no other philosophy than the aspirations of the 
home. Argal, Charlotte Wickham became a gentle- woman of the 
world as it had been written in the Book of Fate that she should 
be, and she prepared to welcome and accept the younger son of 
Colonel Robert E. Lee. Indeed she was but telling the truth when 
she reached the stage of reasoning and realization and could 
smilingly say to her mother: 

'T have always liked Rooney, and. maybe I really liked him 
better than I did Custis, at first. Rooney and 1 could always plav 
together and we did play together until after I was 12 years old ; 
and then I began dreaming of Custis as my ideal. Before that, I 
remember that Custis seemed so dignified and so much older than 
I was ; and so, maybe after all, I will be happier with Rooney than 
I should have been with the thoughtful and dignified Custis ; for, 
you know Mother, Custis hates dances and public functions." 

WHEN ROONEY CAME HOME 

On the way back to Washington, passing through Alexandria, 
Mother Lee called for a brief visit at the home of the other son 
of "Light Horse Harry" Lee ; the home that had been the home 
of the fatherless little Robert E. Lee. There "Rooney" had left 
bis horse and his valet on his flight to Richmond, after Charlotte, 
and Mother Mary Ann Lee gave orders to that valet to tell his 
young master that he must come home at top speed, because his 
mother requested it. She also said : 

"Be sure and tell your young master that unless he hastens to 
his mother, something terrible will happen." 

There was only one train a day. north and south, between 
Alexandria and Richmond ; and no train to cross the Potomac ; 
so it was necessary for "Rooney" to stop in Alexandria. From 
there he could go to Arlington or proceed to Wickham's on horse- 
back. But, his mother was keeping her motherly eyes on her 
grown-up baby boy ; and her motherly eyes were in close har- 
mony with her motherly heart ; and, she must see her boy before 
he went blundering into the Wickham's, without first having a 
full dress rehearsal for his part in that moving picture. 

And so, as "Rooney" was hastening pell mell homewards, he 
saw his father in the family carriage going towards the Long 
Bridge, on his way to Washington to report at army headquarters, 
as he had been ordered to report, by General Scott. The Colonel 
was on the bridge when he heard the clatter of the hoofs of the 
pursuing "Rooney." and heard this shouting : 

80 . 



"Pop, Pop, stop Pop," and the second son of his happy mar- 
riage overtook the Colonel. 

■'What has happened to Mother?" exclaimed "Rooney" with 
great earnestness. "What has happened?" 

"Nothing serious enough for worry, my son," replied Colonel 
Lee. "But, something's going to happen to you. But, be a man, 
and don't break down and weep. If you shed a single tear, I'll 
disown you. Now go to your mother, take your medicine, and 
be a man." 

Shocked, frightened, "Rooney" saluted the Colonel, turned his 
horse and hastened on to Arlington. 

Colonel Lee had in mind the picture of Cardinal Richelieu when 
be was sending De Mauprat to meet his sweetheart, Julie de 
Mortimer, and told him : "Go to your punishment. To the tapes- 
try chamber, go ;" and as Colonel Lee thus sent "Rooney" to his 
fate, he smiled and smiled, as he went driving over the Long- 
Bridge. 

TO THE TAPESTRY CHAMBER 

It was a bright, balmy afternoon, and Mother Lee was resting 
upon an army cot, on the portico, when "Rooney" came galloping 
home. When he saw his mother so reclining, his heart leapecl 
and, but for his father's command tears would have filled his eyes. 
Hastening to her side, he fell upon his knees, caressed her brow 
gently and lovingly, and asked : 

"Has there been an accident, Mother; have you been hurt; or 
are you ill?" 

"Never mind, my baby boy; never mind, now. I am not se- 
riously hurt, and I am not ill. But, I am very tired. There is 
something on my mind, something of greatest importance. I can- 
not tell you about it now. You must learn self-control. It was 
loss of self-control that sent you on a fool's errand to Old Point 
Comfort, after Mother Wickham had given you wise advice. You 
cannot have things in this world all your own way. It is said in 
Ploly Writ: 'No man liveth unto himself.' You must learn to 
be unselfish, to surrender your own will, to what is right. Char- 
lotte Wickham ran away from you when a telegram told her of 
your coming. You cannot go and steal from any mother such a 
priceless prize, and her only greatest treasure. Charlotte Wick- 
ham might be won by some superior man ; but she cannot be stolen. 

"I'll drive over there immediately, and apologize," said the 
gentlemanly, well-bred scion of southern nobility. 

"No, no, no," exclaimed Mother Lee. "Charlotte is in bed with 
a fever. You cannot see her now ; and I am very sure that 
neither her mother nor the Judge would want to see you now. 
As the Bible says again : 'Repent ye, repent ye.' " 

81 



Gently and kindly Aiother Lee sent her boy away, out under 
the trees to commune with Nature and with Nature's God. In 
the evening, after tea, "Roo,ney" said : 

■'.Mother dear, I've been 'a truant boy, that thought his home a 
cage.' It is time for me to begin to be a man. I could not be a 
good husband to any good girl, until I am more of a man than I 
have been. I've been doing a lot of thinking, and some praying, 
too. My mind has been full of comparisons 'between Custis and 
myself. Custis is always doing or trying to do something for you, 
for Dad, for me, and for the servants ; in fact, for everybody. 
I've been baby'ed, Mother, until I've become merely an over- 
grown, selfish, big boy. Mother dear, I'm going to be a man, and 
a man worthy of my mother and father, and I'm beginning — yes, 
I've begun — right now. Help me. Mother, help me!" 

And "Rooney'' kept his word, from that moment to the day of 
his recall to the courts above. 

His mother, wisely, diplomatically, and far-seeingly, then said : 

"Rooney, my man, some day you will have to give up your 
mother ; and some day you will have to give up your father. Cus- 
tis is always giving up his desires for others. Some day you will 
have to give up all for others. If you have to give up Charlotte, 
on whom your selfish boy heart has long been centered, then give 
\\er up like a man. She is ill. The best you can do for now is to 
pray for her. and often. I am so glad and happy that my baby 
'boy is now a manly man. You must learn to know, as Custis 
knows, the Man of Galilee. Good night." 

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON 

What IMother Wickham knew, of course. Mother Lee must 
know ; and what Mother Lee knew, of course, Mother Wickham 
must know. Thus they cordially and wisely co-operated for their 
children. You must try to comprehend that, no matter how big 
and how heav}- they may become, nor how old they may be, the 
sc^s and daughters of normal and sane women are always thought 
of, and usually spoken of, as "children." 

Mother Lee fully comprehended that Custis was the object of 
the natural afifections of Charlotte Wickham, and fully realized 
that Charlotte would not, because she could not. transfer those 
natural affections to any other man. But Mother Lee also knew 
that Charlotte could be and would be a loyal wife, a credit to her 
own family and a credit to the Lees ; and "Rooney'' would never 
know that Charlotte's heart had belonged, almost from her baby- 
hood, to another. Consequently, Charlotte would be a good wife 
and a creditable wife to her son. 

Mother Wickham fully comprehended that a scar across the 
face, or over the hand, or anywhere visible, will last forever, or 

82 



as lung as life shall last. An\- scar is a distigurement. A broad 
and deep wound ma} heal, hut the scar always remains. 

Mother Wickham knew that the heart of her bright, brainy and 
'I)eautiful daughter had been wounded; that the wound was broad 
and deep, so that it was almost incurable, ikit "Rooney" could 
never see the scar, nor ever know that a cicatrix existed. Mother 
W'ickham knew that Charlotte must begin to play a part, and a 
difficult part, in life ; that she must seem and always seem to her 
husband to look upon him as her first and only love, while always 
and ever always her natural love would forever be her first love, 
her lo\e for Custis. But 

"All the world's a stage, 
And all the men and woiuen merelv pla\"ers, 

and so Mother W'ickham carefully and prudently encouraged 
Charlotte to belie\e what she was truly trying tq believe, that she 
really had loved "Rooney" first, from childhood, and that he 
would always be more companionable with her than the more dig- 
nified and philosophical Custis ; and what she knew she told to 
Mother Lee ; and what Mother Lee knew she told to Mother 
Wickman ; and those sincere ladies were playing a double game 
of hearts. Moreover, every plav that was made was for the wel- 
fare of their children. 



WIXXIXO THE WOAL\N 

Thus it happened that when Mother Lee called to "Rooney" on 
the morning after his return, and asked him if he would like to 
accompany her to the Wickham's, "Rooney" raced away after old 
"Uncle Tom." and actually helped him harness the team of big 
bays. He was dressed, walking the broad portico for half an hour 
before his mother was ready ; and away they went on their mis- 
sion of love, and of adventure. Mother Lee said : 

"Now that we are near the close of our little picnic trip. I must 
remind you of what I told you yesterday. Charlotte may be won, 
but she cannot be stolen nor abducted. You must ask for her, 'beg 
for her, and try to win her mother to your cause. You must 
apologize to Mother Wickham for disregarding her advice, and 
for rushing ofT to Old Point to try to win her daughter, without 
her consent, and against the advice of a wise as well as an afifec- 
tionate mother. You've been in the wrong. Like a gentleman, 
you must try to get in the right. You must act the part of a gen- 
tleman by admitting an error. Remember that 

'Honor and fame from no conditions rise ; 
Act well your part. There all the honor lies.' " 

83 



And so Mother Lee had trained her son for his part in the next 
scene of the drama of real hfe, and trained him well. After she 
was sure of his readiness to follow her directions, Mother Lee 
gave him a little stimulant that set his heart into a flutter and 
tremble, when she said : 

"I have talked with Charlotte, just as I promised you five 
years ago that I would do when it might do some good. I have 
observed her well, and I am quite sure that I am doing the right 
thing or I would not be making this excursion into the field of 
match-making — not for the world. But, my son, I am quite sure 
that Charlotte has always held you in high esteem. During the 
past four years she has had many opportunities to marry, and 
she has rejected the proposals of some of the best young men 
in Virginia. 

"Evidently, Charlotte has been waiting for some one. Now, 
if you do not take it for granted, and try to snatch her away from 
her home ; if you will approach her as I have advised, I am quite 
sure that she will soon show her affections in such a manner that 
proposal will be natural to you and easy ; or, it might be that 
Charlotte would make up her mind to do the proposing herself. 
Yes, that's how sure I am that Charlotte is ready and willing. 
Surely she has been waiting for some one all of these four years." 

"Glory be," he exclaimed. "Glory be, mother, Glory 'be." 

Of course she had been waiting for some one. She'd been 
waiting for Custis, and Mother Lee knew it well. Even of the 
best of them it must be said as it is of the worst of them : 

"Oh, the light that lies in woman's eyes. 
That lies there, lies and lies." 

As they were coming up the long side road that led from the 
main highway to the Wickham mansion. Mother Lee and "Roo- 
iiey" saw the Judge driving from his front gate a tall, slender, 
sleek-looking man. The Judge was shaking his heavy gold- 
headed cane, and they heard him say: 

"If you show up here again, sir, you will not see a cane, nor 
feel it. You will have to contend with a shotgun : you damnable 
inter-meddling Yankee peddler." 

"I beg your pardon, Mrs. Lee," said the Judge as he turned and 
observed his visitors for the first time. That he was very much 
in earnest, you will understand, for the Judge did not hear the 
hoof-beats of that big team, nor the rattling of the 'big iron-tired 
wheels, for all wheels in those days were held together by iron 
tires. 

"That Yankee has been here before," exclaimed Judge Wick- 
ham, in an explanatory manner, as he was helping Mrs. Lee to 
alight, and as "Rooney" was alighting on the other side. The 
Judge continued : 

84 



"He has been here for the last time, I am sure. He is only 
one of a thousand or more that ought to be shot down for tres- 
passing, whenever they step foot onto the estate of a southern 
gentleman. There is an organization of intruding Yankees, and 
they are going about as this fellow has been doing, reading that 
book about 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' and trying to excite the darkies 
to discontent. It is an outrageous invasion of our peace. It is 
criminal trespass. I'll surely shoot if that fellow comes again." 

Before they realized it. Mother Wickham was with them. She 
took Mother Lee with her, leaving "Rooney" with the Judge who 
was further ex])laining his unusual manifestation of anger. As he 
mentioned the name of the book, the old slave of the Lees, "Uncle 
Tom," who was standing at the heads of the horses, ready to take 
them to the big stone barn, exclaimecl : 

"Massa Judge, 'sense me, Sah, but Ah 'IniUieves dat's de same 
one what was to Ahlingtc,n las' week. He was reading ''bout MY 
CABIN, an' de othah niggahs tole him to git out; an' when Ah 
heard some things he say-ed 'bout My Cabin, Ah jess hollahed 
dat Ah was goin' to th' Mansion an' get Massa Lee's shotgun. 
How come strange white man to write a book 'bout Uncle Tom's 
Cabin when Ah hain't seen him an' he hain't seen me, an' he 
hain't nevah been in Mali Cabin. Ef Ah was white, Massa Jedge, 
Ah'd kill dat book man mahself." 

As "Rooney" was accompanying the Judge to the Mansion, he 
noted that Charlotte was away off by herself at the south end of 
the veranda. She looked pale, and no wonder, after her recent 
experiences ; and the breaking of ber heart of hearts, the loss of 
her all ; for 

"The night has a thousand eyes. 
The day but one ; 
.A.nd the light of the whole life dies 
When love is done.'' 

'T've been thinking of you all morning, 'Rooney" " said Charlotte 
when the handsome big young man came to her, and she added, 
"I was wondering if you ever think of me. You have been home 
more than a week, without calling to see me. That's not neigh- 
borly, my playmate, 'Rooney,' and I've been wondering all 
morning, if you were never coming again." 

Poor "Rooney," was amazed, and happy. Then, of course, 
Charlotte did not know how he had disregarded her mother, and 
had gone to Old Point after her. Should he tell her, or not ; that 
was the question. Lie concluded to be frank ; and so be told her 
that he had been trying to come to her ever since he had returned 
to his home. "Rooney" was acting well his part, and doing just 
as Charlotte wanted him to do, and just as the two mothers 

85 



wanted him to do. And, when he had finished the story of his 
vain chase after her, Charlotte said: 

"And here 1 have been wondering if you ever would come to 
me; and have been looking for you every day, only to be disap- 
pointed, and you have really and honestly been doing your best to 
come to me. And, 'Rooney' what in the world did you want to 
see me about, any way?" 

"Rooney" was backed up against the wall of diplomacy. Even 
if he wanted to retreat, he couldn't. But he had no idea of 
retreat. He stood his ground, and replied : 

"Why Charlotte, I've been living in a dream for many years; 
ever since I was a little fellow, barely able to talk and think, and 
know the differences between right and wrong, the commonplace 
and the Ijcautiful. I've been in love for years and years. I've 
been dreaming and dreaming that the most beautiful woman in all 
the world, the best girl ever created, with eyes so 'blue and heart 
to true that she could be as great a queen of my heart as I knew 
her to be the greatest Queen of the May; I've been dreaming and 
hoping and believing that she might some day look around her 
and see me, and notice me, and, maybe, care for me a little bit. 
Why have you been looking for me, Charlotte?" 

"Oh, my dear 'Rooney' you've told my story so well, that it 
will be useless for me to try to tell it. I've been dreaming, too. 
I've had my mind and my heart on the best young man ever 
created, a handsome man, too ; the son of a great soldier, the 
descendant of the greatest of American women ; and I've been 
loving him. and loving him, and loving him, until my heart has 
so hungered for him, that I've been in bed with a fever, all for 
love; all for love, 'Rooney,' all for love." 

"Oh Charlotte, my dream girl, have I been so blind? Do you 
mean me, that you love me so well. Is my dream coming true?" 

"No, silly, " said Charlotte, "it will never come true. It is past 
now. It is a reality. See?" 

Yes. he did see : and what he saw was, the 'beautiful cherry red 
lips that were close to his own, and coming closer. And. well, 
why try to describe the closing scene? You can only understand 
some things by experience. 

Charlotte had been describing her love for Custis, and des- 
cribing it truthfully; and "Rooney" imagined, as she intended 
him to imagine, that she had been describing him, but "Rooney" 
did not know of 

"The light that lies in woman's eyes. 
That lies there, lies and hes." 

and so he was happy. And just as might have been expected, the 
two mothers came around the corner of the veranda, as "Rooney" 



was lifting the fairy out of her chair, and holding her in his 
arms and Mother Wickham cried, anxiously, 

" 'Rooney' be careful,, don't you drop my baby." 

And then "Rooney," the full grown man at last, proudly 
answered that Charlotte was no longer anybody's baby, but his 
own ; and that was the first announcement of the engagement. 

And, on another morning soon, in San Francisco, Captain 
G. W. C. Lee. registered at the Palace hotel, and read in the 
newspaper dispatches of the engagement which attracted nation- 
wide interest. 

RINGING OF THE BELLS 

"Hear the mellow wedding 'bells, golden bells. 
What a world of merriment their melody foretells 
Through the balmy air of night 
How they ring out their delight. 
Through the molten golden notes, all in tune 
What a liquid ditty iioats 

To the turtle dove that listens, while he gloats. 
On the moon ; 

How it dwells on the future, 
How it tells of the rapture that impels 
To the ringing and the swinging of the bells, 
To the rliyming and the chiming of the bells." 

Before God and the Church and under the laws of mankind, 
Charlotte Wickham Ijecame the pure, loyal, perfect wife of one of 
nature's noblemen ; and, in her heart she was the queen of a 
royal prince in our republic. That she was a living miracle is 
true, for she was perfect in each one of two characters of 
earth life, in that she was loyal always to the love of the happy 
days of her virgin girlhood, and absolutely as well as unswervingly 
loyal to the husband to whom she had been given, by the magnifi- 
cent and masterful man who loved her with divine affection, and 
whom she loved with idolatrous adulation. 

Married in 1859 to one of the best young men in America, but 
without natural affection for the young man, the life of Charlotte 
Wickham was so sad, such a tragedy of romance that it might 
better be told within a few words or a few lines. Married in 
1S59. Charlotte Wickham passed away from earth four years 
later during the Civil War in 1863, while her husband "Rooney" 
Lee, seriously wounded in battle, was confined to a prison in 
Fortress Monroe and unable to come to her in her illness ; and 
to complete the tragedy of the early life of "Rooney" Lee, it must 
be added that both of their little girls passed away before he was 
returned to his magnificent estate by the conclusion of the hostili- 

87 



ties of the country. He came to an empty home, with empty 
arms, and an empty heart. Such a man. with such a hfe of 
tragedy, might haA'e lieen the 

LORD OF BURLEIGH 

When Alfred Tennyson was in the height of his fame he gave 
to the world the beautiful poem of the "Lord of Burleigh" and 
in two of those verses he practically described "Rooney" Lee and 
his bride. "Rooney" Lee, as a descendant of Daniel Parke Custis, 
had inherited the White House farm on the Pamunkey River ; 
and it was to that magnificent mansion which had been built 
originally by American's first merchant prince for Martha Dan- 
dridge who became afterwards Martha Washington, "Rooney" Lee 
brought his bride. It was a magnificent estate and here the story 
may be told in brief in the words of Alfred Tennyson: 

"Here he lived in state and bounty. 

Lord of Burleigh fair and free ; 
Not a lord in all the county 

Was so great a lord as he ; 
There she drooped and drooped before him. 

Fading slowly from his side ; 
Two fair children first she 'bore him. 

Then before her time she died." 

Majestic sweetness sits enthroned upon the brow of the hero of 
this story ; this o'er true tale of American knighthood ; of one 
whose self-sacrificing purposes and deeds manifest in every in- 
stance and in every detail the invisible but palpable inspiration 
of the spirit of Calvary, making of it a history of incomparable, 
matchless, marvelous, miraculous character, which approximates 
well-nigh unattainable perfection ; "a light that shines upon the 
road" that leads unto the mansions 0;f light, where many mansions 
are. as declared by One who said: "If it were not so, would I 
have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?" 

The heroine also is haloed with the angelic beauty, purity and 
devotion that bespeak the reverence and homage which belong 
only to the sainted in heaven who are named by the church. 

Every reader will naturally and voluntarily join with the great, 
the good, the only Custis Lee, in breathing the prayer : 

"God bless angelic little Charlotte." 



88 



PART TWO 

ZENITH OF AMERICAN VALOR 

IT WAS the year of 1857 that Colonel Robert E. Lee was 
subduing the Comanche Indians, and it was in that year that 
his second son, "Rooney," was marching across the uninhabited 
plains of this country where countless millions now live and thrive. 
During the days of the following generation that year was always 
referred to in casual conversations as 

THE YEAR OF THE COMET 

You never heard of the wrath of Abraham Lincoln, did you? 
Well, General Tom Ewing of Indiana told the old-timers on ancient 
Newspaper Row, in Washington city, an incident which he termed 
"a narrow escape from the just wrath of President Lincoln." 

To understand it thoroughly the average reader must ask old 
grand-pa or grand-ma to describe the immense comet which over- 
cast the sky. really overspreading it, for manv moons in the year 

of isr.r. 

Excepting the few scientists who comprehended the history of 
the comet, all of the people of the world were frightened; and the 
plain people of this country were praying and following a sect 
called "Millerites," who had been predicting the end of the world 
at that time. It was during the height of the excitement, appre- 
hension and alarm caused by the comet that General Ewing was 
in Vincennes, Ind., ready to take a coach for transportation to 
Indianapolis. He said : 

"In front of the hotel there was a four-horse old-fashioned coach 
with a very venerable driver. On the rear seat I found a rustic 
farmer, or farmer's son, making himself comfortable. Now, I 
did not want to ride backward, so I approached him and said : 

" 'My dear fellow. Governor Willard of Indiana is coming out 
in a minute and I know that it makes the Governor seasick to ride 
backward. So, if you don't mind, it would be a nice thing if you 
would take the front seat and leave the rear seat for the Governor.' 

"The farmer picked up his straw hat, put it on his bushy mat 
cf black hair and through his back whiskers came the words, very 
cheerfully spoken : 

" 'All right, let the Governor have the back seat. 1 guess I 
won't get seasick, as I have never been to sea.' 

"Gathering his cheap linen duster around his skeleton and pick- 

89 



ing up his big carpetbag, the lanky fellow sidled across, took the 
front seat and left the best seat, the back one, for Governor Wil- 
lard of Indiana, and also for his diplomatic friend, General Tom 
Ewing. 

THE TALE OF A COMET 

"It was a rainy day and we traveled over an awfully muddy 
road, through a sea of mud. Governor Willard and I talked about 
the comet, what the newspapers were saying and what the maga- 
zines were guessing about it. The lanky one asked several ques- 
tions, showing some knowledge of current rumor, and we put him 
of? with brief, pert answers. Finally he addressed me by name, 
although I had not given him my name, and asked: 

" 'General Ewing, if you know what effect this comet will have 
en the earth I will be obliged for the information.' 

"Afterward I remembered his decent and respectful manner, 
but at the time I was annoyed, and shut him up for good by saying : 

" 'I have no doubt that the denied thing will grip up this earth 
and run away to hell with it.' 

"That finished him for the day. He asked no more, but respect- 
fully listened, as we expected him to do. When we got to Indian- 
apolis in the evening the gawky fellow rubbed resentment and re- 
proach into my soul by jumping out into the mud, picking up a 
plank, placing it where Governor Willard and I could walk to the 
board sidewalk dry-shod, and he disappeared into the hotel before 
either one of us could utter an expression of appreciation. Gov- 
ernor Willard said that Sir Walter Raleigh couldn't have done 
the act any better. 

"Half an hour later Governor Willard and I were at one of the 
big tables in the dining room, which was crowded, when the 
farmer came in, looked around for a seat and moved toward our 
table. I asked Governor Willard if I should invite the fellow, 
and was advised to do so, for there was a vacant seat next to 
Governor Willard, and I motioned for the tall country fellow to 
come, and he came. 

"He looked a great deal better. He had combed his shock of 
black hair and had somehow smoothed his whiskers. He wore a 
black Prince Albert coat, which was some worn, but looked 
genteel. As he came alongside of us he thanked Governor Wil- 
lard, and also thanked me, for the honor of a seat at our table. 

"Apparently he was a very light eater, although he was a tall 
fellow and big enough to swing a heavy scythe or rake in a harvest 
field. He finished while the Governor and I were taking dessert, 
and as he arose he thanked us again for the honor, and asked 
Governor Willard if he might tell folks out West that he had sat 

00 



at the same table at supper with Governor Willard of Indiana, 
and the Governor graciously gave him that permission. 

"The Governor, having dressed in my room for the evening, 
descended the stairs with me, as he was intending soon to go to 
the executive mansion. We heard gay laughter and rounds of 
applause in the parlor, and I asked one of the old hotel employes 
who the tall man was that stood in the parlor, and whom the peo- 
ple were so lustily cheering, and his reply was : 

" 'That is a lawyer from out West somewhere, Illinois 1 believe. 
He comes here two or three times a year. His name is Lincoln, 
Abraham Lincoln, and he is a fine story teller.' 

"The ride, the story of the comet, the supper and all were for- 
gotten soon, but in the spring of 186L less than four years later, 
I went to Washington city to ask that same gawky fellow to 
appoint me to the important and desirable office of minister to 
Mexico. Although I had the hearty indorsement of the leading 
Republicans of Indiana, I realized that I was facing the pent-up 
wrath of the man whom I had directly and keenly insulted on that 
occasion, and needlessly, too, for he had been gentlemanly and 
courteous, while I had been boorish. 

"I told my friends about it, and they were prepared with 
bushels of excuses for me. But. fortunately, the big man in the 
White House looked me over very keenly, did not recognize me, 
grasped my hand very cordially and said : 

"'General Ewing, the country needs men of experience; men 
who are indorsed as you are by big men. Unfortunately for you 
individually, however, I have promised that place to Tom Corwin 
of Ohio. I have chosen him for the position of minister to 
Mexico.' 

"I believed, and my friends believed, that he was merely throw- 
ing the harpoon of vengeance into me, but he was not. He really 
did not remember me, and he said: 'Now I hope that you will look 
over the list of possibilities, select something substantially as good 
and come back to me. The country needs veteran soldiers and 
men of experience who have proved their love of country. Come 
and see me again, and we will get together somehow.' 

"Within a week I called again, properly accompanied, and asked 
to be made minister to Brazil, and President Lincoln gave me a 
note to the Secretary of State, ordering that appointment. It was 
made and promptly confirmed by the Senate. 

"Just about one month I spent at the Department of State re- 
ceiving instructions concerning the duties of the position. Then 
when I was ready to go to Brazil I was accompanied to the White 
House by the Secretary of State, William H. Seward, to receive 
my final instructions from the President and to say good-by to him. 

"President Lincoln gave me greater, better, more comprehensive 

91 . 



instructions than I had received at the Department of State. He 
v/as very earnest, very grave and thoroughly impressed me with 
the trust which was reposed in me hy my country. He made me 
understand that the diplomatic representatives of some countries 
cf South America, and of all except Russia in the countries of 
Europe, would be likely to mislead me into quarrels or contro- 
versies. My duty was to keep sober and calm under all circum- 
stances. Nothing unexpected should be allowed to unbalance my 
mental equilibrium. One careless deed or word of mine might 
prove to be of grave danger, possibly fatal to our country. 

"Secretary Seward listened carefully, as I did. At the con- 
.i-lusion of the audience President Lincoln bade me good-by and 
godspeed, went to the door with the Secretary and me and there 
he took my hand and heartily squeezed it in his powerful grip 
and said : 

" 'Now you do your duty ; I will do my duty, and between us,' 
here he threw his long left arm around my shoulders and added, 
'we ought to be able, Tom, to keep that derned old comet from 
lunning to hell with this old earth. Good-l^y.' " 

LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE 

DURING the year following "the comet year," and every day 
for more than half of that year, 1858. Stephen A. Douglas, 
the generally accepted oratorical leader of the democratic 
party of the country, was traversing the fenceless and almost 
boundless prairies of the State of Illinois, on the defensive, for 
the first time in his public career. 

There had been born at the Twin Oaks of Jackson, Michigan, 
a new political party; and it was a party with a principle which 
was fast becoming exceedingly popular, at least in the free States 
oT the country. It was known as the republican party. In the 
army of the country there was an intrepid engineer officer. General 
John C. Fremont," who had won for himself the distinction of 
having been the first leader of men to blaze the way across the 
"Great American i3esert," for he had led the way across the vast 
continent which was, previous to the year 1850, practically, an 
unknown because unexplored empire. General Fremont was 
popularly known as "The Pathfinder ;" and the new political party 
had wisely chosen that good man to be the leader of their aggrega- 
tions of unorganized masses. General Fremont was defeated by 
the democratic candidate, James Buchanan, in the year 1856 ; but 
he had blazed the way, politically, and the new party was pre- 
senting an organized front two years later, so that in the year 
1858. under the leadership of Abraham Lincoln, that new party 
was making its first great struggle for a standing in the United 
States Senate. 

• 92 



Abraham Lincoln, born and bred in poverty, self-educated, self- 
contident, aggressive, tired with ardent and crusading belief in 
the principles of the new political party, was making a wonder- 
fully successful campaign for the seat in the Senate then held by 
Douglas, whose term was to expire on March 4, 1859. With 
I'residential ambitions and with superior prospects because of the 
excellent organization of the democratic party, Senator Douglas 
was a candidate for re-election ; and the new man who had fought 
his way out of utter obscurit}-, was a candidate for the senatorial 
position in which Douglas had become famous. 

Douglas, as an oratorical leader, was sui generis, and able to 
compel applause, on all occasions. But, like all other public 
.speakers seeking political distinction, he was successful in securing 
hearings by countless assemblies of men, but without producing 
the necessary votes on election days, in the national arena. In his 
own State of Illinois, however. Douglas had been matchless, until 
Lincoln appeared and forced the fighting all of that year. Al- 
though the contest was in doubt for many weeks, and the forensic 
campaign was continuous, e.xciting. frequently bitter, Douglas was 
re-elected. Lincoln, however, had accomplished the chief purpose 
of his entire campaign. He had made himself the national leader 
of the new political party. Although defeated for that senator- 
ship, as he had really expected to be defeated, he had successfully 
used his opportunities in public discussion to compel national at- 
tention, win unexampled popularity and almost unchallenged lead- 
ership. His presidential nomination, in ISliO, was the achievement 
for which he had made the campaign in Illinois, in 1858. The 
debate had compelled nation-wide attention and interest. 

Very few individuals now living heard that debate, without 
mention of which American history would be inexplicable to all 
generations of after years. This writer heard Lincoln and Douglas 
in joint deliate at Quincv. Illinois, on the same platform, in a 
jniblic park. 

While Thomas R. Marshall was Vice President of the United 
States and therefore the presiding of^cer of the Senate, it was 
his custom, when the Senate was in session, to traverse the dis- 
tance from his office in the great marble office building of the 
Senate, in the diminutive monorail car in the subway. One morn- 
ing just as the Vice President was giving to the motorman the 
cheery morning greeting to which he was accustomed, the Vice 
President was addressed by an elderly newspaper man, who en- 
tered the car from the opposite side, his words being: 

"Mr. Vice President, maybe you are the very man that I am 

looking for this morning " 

"Don't let it occur again," interrupted the genial gentleman from 
Indiana, as he extended his hand, and added: "If you imagine 

93 



that I am a repository of any news, you are making a bad begin- 
ning for the day, for I don't know anything at all, except that I 
am able to remember the place where I work and earn my bread 
and butter, and I am just going there to be on the job on time." 

Thus did the genial, popular, worthy, and lovable gentleman 
attempt to avoid an interview ; for he was one of the very few 
men in public office who really did avoid and endeavor alwavs to 
escape interviews and all other attempts to keep him in the lime- 
light. But on that occasion he was actually cornered in the little 
subway car, and the insistent newspaper man, almost as well 
along in years as himself, persisted with his inquiries and obtained 
a bit of American history well worth the recording. 

"I am trying to prepare an unusual article concerning Abraham 
Lincoln, for publication this February anniversary of the birth of 
that historic character," said the news writer. "I am trying to 
find some person or persons of consequence yet living who heard 
the great debate between Lincoln and Douglas in 1858." 

"If you will leave out the words 'of consequence,' " said the Vice 
President, "maybe I can help you out, for I know a man who 
heard a part of that debate, when he was only a little boy, 4 years 
old. He remembers his impressions very vividly, and I have heard 
him tell the story several times. 

"The little fellow was 4 and almost 5 years old when his demo- 
cratic daddy took him to Freeport, 111., and he heard both of those 
great men in their appeals to the people for election to the Senate ; 
and, by the way, you should tell your audience that the famous 
debate of that year was a sort of John-Baptist forerunner of our 
present primary system. I can repeat the story substantially as I 
have heard the little boy tell it ; of course, since he has grown up 
and mingled with men and affairs. He said : 

" 'I have no recollection of the points made in the debate, but I 
remember both of the men and how each one of them appeared 
before the immense audience. I remember particularly how they 
appeared to me. The short, stout man, Douglas, had the better of 
the argument with the people, for the applause was frequent, 
natural, bursting out into prolonged roars. He moved up and 
down the platform, talking from each end and from the middle, 
and also talking as he was walking from end to end. Douglas 
undoubtedly had the encouragement of applause and popular 
approval. 

" 'I was on the platform. My daddy was a democrat, and he 
must have had some influence to get up there on the occasion of 
such a great assemblage. The tall man, Lincoln, did not walk 
about very much. He stood almost in the center of the platform. 
He talked to everybody, though, for he continually turned his 
face and his whole body from side to side, addressing all of the 

04 



people. It was my impression that the people liked him better 
than they did the shorter man. They did not give him so much 
applause, but as he told stories to them, maybe to illustrate his 
points, the people burst out into laughter, and the}- did so very 
often. Two or three times they cheered him so long that it made 
me tired. 

" 'While Mr. Lincoln was talking I sat on the knees of Senator 
Douglas, and he never said one word to me; just held me. When 
it came his turn to talk I was handed to the tall man, and I sat 
on the knees of Abraham Lincoln while Douglas was speaking. 
Now, I would like to make you understand what a difference there 
was between the two men, from a boy's standpoint. Mr. Lincoln 
asked my name, my age, where I lived, whether I knew my A, B, 
C's, whether I had a puppy dog or not, and all sorts of questions 
cf a kind to interest a little boy. I surprised and heckled my old 
democratic daddy by telling him that when I grew up I intended 
to vote for Mr. Lincoln. He could have had my vote that year, 
sure, if I could have voted.' " 

"That is an unusually interesting story, Mr. Vice President," 
said the newspaper man, "and I am sure that you will complete it 
by telling me where I can find the man who told it to you." 

"Well, earlier in the day," was the reply, "you can generally 
find him in the office rooms of the Vice President. 1 heard him 
tell the story when he was Governor of Indiana and before. His 
name is Tom Marshall." 

Having added to his reputation as a newspaper man, the dis- 
tinction of being a reliable writer of history, the narrator then 
sought the distinguished "Uncle Joe" Cannon, famous as having 
been the masterful and militant Speaker of the National House 
of Representatives during one of the most stormy and epoch- 
making periods of that legislative body ; a body in which only the 
stormy petrels can survive. Dear old "Uncle Joe" was then grace- 
fully and gently approaching his 83d birthday ; and he greeted the 
interviewing visitor with youthful cordiality. Although they were 
personal friends of more than ordinary intimacy, the narrator is 
almost twenty years the junior of the statesman, and so you will 
observe the ever-bubbling spirit of humor in the famous legislator 
by the fact that he greeted the writer thus : 

"I am sorry for you, every time I see you. I have known you 
now for more than forty years. You do not seem to realize, as 
your friends do, that you are getting to be an old man." 

And the venerable statesman was swinging along rapidly toward 
his ofifice room, when his old friend put an arm over his shoulder 
and said: 

"Now, just for that, you must give up ten or fifteen minutes 
cf your time and tell me what you know about the Lincoln-Douglas 
debate of 1858." 

95 



"Well, shorthand, then," said the most lovable of public men. 
"I happen to remember that you can write chicken tracks with a 
pen, so take this down. The most exciting debate of all of their 
meetings was at Charleston, 111.. al)out the middle of September, 
1858, and I was there. 

"Senator Douglas made the grave mistake of accusing Lincoln 
of disloyalty. He referred to a story current almost ten years 
earlier and thoroughly disproved, charging Lincoln with having 
voted against appropriations for the soldiers during the war with 
Mexico, withholding appropriations, to let our soldiers starve or 
go without ammunition in their campaigns. You know, Abraham 
Lincoln was a member of Congress when President James K. 
Polk sent soldiers across the line without Congressional authority, 
and in so doing he \"olated the constitution by assuming to declare 
war. That is a right belonging only to the Congress. 

"Abraham Lincoln voted for the Ashmun resolution declaring 
that the war had been unconstitutionally declared. So did Allen G. 
Thurman and many other men who became eminent. 

"But when war was declared Lincoln and all of the others loyally 
voted to sustain the army. Senator Douglas must have known the 
facts and yet he threw out that accusation, and it aroused the 
wrath, not to say intense anger, of Abraham Lincoln. 

"Sitting on the platform as chairman of the Douglas committee 
was Colonel Orlando B. Ficklin. He had been a member of Con- 
gress at the same time as Abraham Lincoln. As soon as it came 
his turn to speak Mr. Lincoln went to Colonel Ficklin, grabbed 
him by the shoulders and dragged him to the front of the plat- 
form, and he shouted to the audience: 

" 'I am not going to hurt Ficklin, but I am going to make him 
tell the truth to this audience about that ten-year-old lie which 
Judge Douglas has brought up again. Ficklin was a member of 
Congress, he knows the truth, and must tell it.' 

"Colonel Ficklin then stated that he was not merely a supporter 
of Senator Douglas, but a long time personal friend of Mr. Lin- 
coln. He stated that although Mr. Lincoln had voted for the 
Ashmun resolution he had consistently voted for all army appro- 
priations and that his loyalty was a]:)Solutely beyond question. 

"That dramatic performance finally ended that lie against Lin- 
coln, and it increased Lincoln's popularity, too. But there were 
many other lies and many other liars in those days and some of 
them kept up their vilification of the great man, even until after 
his body had been laid away forever. The great philosopher who 
called attention to the fact that 'the poor ye have with you always' 
might have included the political liars in the same category." 

An interesting item concerning that epoch is offered by another 
little boy, a couple of years older than Vice President Marshall — a 

96 



little boy of about 8 years who resided in Keokuk, Iowa, where the 
big dam now masters the mighty Alississippi River. In after 
years he grew into notice as a newspaper man at Washington, 
but when he was a play-about-town boy his father took him down 
the river on the some time famous side-wheel steamboat Sucker 
State to the ambitious little city of Quincy, 111., and this is the way 
he now tells the story : 

• "Dad was some stumper himself, as I knew, for I had heard 
him. He took me on to the platform, which was either out in 
the woods or in a great park. Dad knew the short, stout man, but 
he was introduced to the tall man. I have always remembered 
both of them very distinctly, for Dad told me that they were the 
two greatest men in this country, if not in the world. 

"I could not understand what they were talking about, but when 
the short man finished his speech I got scared. Since ! have grown 
up I have tried to find a record of what happened, but it is not 
in any printed record. I thought that the tall man was going to 
kill the other man, for he threatened him. The tall man had been 
sitting in a corner. He was all humped up, as if he was cold, or 
as if he was scared. When it came his turn he got np, threw a 
long linen duster to another man, and shouted out loud : 

" 'Hold my coat now while I stone Stephen !' 

"I looked all round me, but did not see any stones. The tall 
man did not seem to try to find any stones, and the crowd just 
roared out laughing. Afterward my daddy made me tell the story 
as my childish eyes had seen and my little ears had heard, and 
Dad's friends just laughed, and Dad said : 

" 'Old Abe surely did stone Stephen, and threw big darnicks 
at him. too.' 

"And that grieved me, too, for I thought that my dear old 
daddy was lying about it. for Old Abe didn't throw any rocks at 
all, and I know that I had watched his every movement. 

"I remember well how the shorter and stouter man walked up 
and down the platform and how the people cheered almost every 
sentence that he uttered. I remember also that the tall man stood 
almost still in one position, near the center of the platform. But 
he waved his long arms a great deal, like big flails. Very often he 
leaned away over the front of the platform, toward the people, 
as if he wanted to get nearer to the people. 1 remember also that 
after the talking on the platform was over the tall man did a 
lot of handshaking, but the shorter man soon went away in a 
big stage, drawn by four horses, as though he was in a hurry 
to either get to some other place or to get away from that par- 
ticular place, and it seemed to me that he was awfully anxious 
to simply get away from there. Some folks on the platform talked 

07 



about 'the Judge,' as they called him, going away so fast, and 
one of the men there said to my father: 

" 'Abe's in no hurry. Abe don't drink.' 

"In later years, I have often wondered if that was harmless 
sarcasm or whether it was a political lie. Mingling with modern 
politicians for many years, I have become accustomed to hearing 
lots of political lies, and maybe that was one concerning Stephen 
A. Douglas, although in those days there was no ban on the 
drinking habit — not for many years afterward." 

Congressman Benjamin F. Marsh, of Warsaw, 111., was the 
son of one of the most ardent, earnest and tireless of the sup- 
porters of Abraham Lincoln and, concerning that topic, he once 
said to the narrator : 

"My father told me that Mr. Lincoln liked the poison, liked it 
so well that he often thanked God that it was so scarce out on the 
Western prairies. He said that Mr. Lincoln never used it, but 
admitted that he had indulged in it occasionally, and liked it, but 
was man enough to reject it entirely. There were no saloons on 
the prairies and no saloons in the small prairie towns. The few 
farmers who went to the larger cities carried home with them very 
little, because it was not any more popular with the women in 
those days than it is now." 

Having become interested in this subject in later years, the 
narrator once asked Congressman William M. Springer, of Spring- 
field, 111., concerning his recollections of Mr. Lincoln, and his 
reply was, quoting from memory: 

"There never lived a better temperance orator than Abraham 
Lincoln, and he antedated all of them, although he did not make 
a specialty of speaking publicly upon that topic. Although he 
never was in the habit of liquor drinking he was heard to say 
quite often that he liked the poison so well that he hated the sight 
of a bottle." 

Today there is a magnificent, beautiful, incomparable marble 
memorial to Abraham Lincoln, in the District of Columbia, which 
is the seat of government for our republic. With unlimited 
v/ealth the national congress made financial provision for that 
matchless memorial ; and it ought to be known of all men that 
Senator Shelby M. Cullom of Illinois originated, managed and 
secured the legislation which made provision for that memorial 
to Lincoln. It was the crowning efifort of a long life in the 
public service. To Senator Cullom the writer also went for a 
reminiscence of the historic debate. The Senator was growing 
old, and he was feeble. Probably upon no other topic could he 
have been persuaded to speak, as he did for this narrator. 

"After listening to the great debate," said Senator Cullom, "I 
was on the* way home with my father when he summed up the 

98 



discussion in these words : 'You have heard the greatest of all 
defendants of a national wrong, and you have listened also to the 
wisest man since Solomon.' 

"As a very young man I did not understand, but now I compre- 
hend. Abraham Lincoln was wiser than all the political leaders 
of that day. All of them told him that he would be defeated in 
his contest for the Senatorship miless he gave up his purpose to 
keep to the front the slavery question. In the company of my 
father one evening at Springfield I heard Mr. Lincoln say: 'If I 
lose, nobody else will have lost anything; I am the chief loser if 
Douglas defeats me. It is my fight and I'll fight it out in my 
own way.' 

"I can now see that the Senatorship was not the goal of the 
great Lincoln during that debate in the year 1858. It is clear to 
my mind now that Lincoln's purpose was to make all of the people 
of the United States hear him and believe with him that 'this 
country cannot endure half slave and half free.' 

"If he might be elected to the Senate, well and good ; he would 
have spread broadcast that slogan. If he should be defeated, well 
and good, he would have spread broadcast that slogan. He did 
not care a rap for a seat in the Senate, except as a means to the 
higher end. 

"During that summer and fall of the year 1858, in season and 
out of season, on every occasion and with every opportunity, 
Abraham Lincoln repeated his phrase: 'This country cannot con- 
tinue to exist half slave and half free.' 

■'No wonder that my father regarded him as the wisest man 
since Solomon. Douglas did not comprehend and nobody else 
comprehended that masterful man. In their presence and per- 
sistently in their hearing he was writing the platform of his party 
for the Presidential year of 1860. At the same time he was 
making himself the logical bearer of the party standard on that 
platform. 

"Moreover, that great political prophet was even then engaged 
!n preparing the people for the Emancipation Proclamation which 
it was manifestly ordained that he should write and fling forth to 
the world. Abraham Lincoln knew what he was doing, and he 
was the only man in Illinois, the only man in the country who 
knew that he was writing the platform for the Republican National 
Convention of 1860; was gaining the votes which would give him 
the Presidental nomination; was sowing the seeds which would 
develop into the votes which would elect him ; was aiming even 
then at the goal of human freedom, knowing himself to he the 
chosen leader of the people, and realizing that it was to l)e his 
mission to demonstrate that 'this nation could not exist half slave 
and half free.' In that debate, at all times and under all circum- 

90 



stances he was singing the anthem of oratory which should compel 
all of our people to join in the chorus, making this indeed 'the 
land of the free.' 

"I often have thought that my father's words should be a part 
of the history of that man, who was 'the wisest of men since 
Solomon.' " 

Thus it would seem that Colonel Bright wonderfully condensed 
the story of the life and character of Abraham Lincoln in the 
simple statement that "no sculptor has told the story and no artist 
has portrayed the mobile features of Abraham Lincoln." 

It might also be said that no writer has ever described that 
hinnan being with character almost divine ; a character too great 
to be comprehended by the average man, and, therefore, too 
broad to be mortised into the life theories of the average man, 
however well he may wield "the pen of a ready writer," for it is a 
character which inspires a race, abides in the hearts of tens of 
millions of people and influences a titanic nation, leading that 
nation always toward the liberty of mankind. 

Abraham Lincoln's incisive phrase, used so often in 18.5S, he 
v.'ould today write in these words : 

"The nations of the world cannot longer exist part of them 
happy in the liberty of republics and part of them unhappy in 
the slavery and under the lash of 'the divine right of kings.' " 

WHEN LINCOLN AND LEE CAME TOGETHER 

From a political viewpoint, indeed from every angle, the cam- 
paign year of 1860 was so eventful as to require separate con- 
sideration by every student of the history of our country. Each 
and every political meeting, during the four or five months pre- 
ceding election day, was a training camp for soldiers. The demo- 
crats, followers of course of Andrew Jackson, familiarly known 
a? "Old Hickory," had well-organized and well-drilled marching 
clubs, and they were called "Hickory Clubs." The republicans 
also had well-organized and well-drilled marching clubs, and they 
were called "Wide-awakes." 

Political meetings were attended by interested crowds, and 
usually they were excited crowds too. The marching clubs car- 
ried long poles, and on the top of each pole there was a blazing 
torch — a tin can containing coal oil. Nowadays that earth product 
is not known as coal oil. It is refined and known to the present 
generation as kerosene. 

Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth, popular and capable, conducted 
his well-uniformed and well-drilled company of "Fire Zouaves" 
all over the country, giving exhibition drills. They incited com- 
pany formations of school boys. The democratic and the repub- 
lican marching clubs emulated the example set by the "Fire 

100 



Zouaves," and they drilled for the purpose of making, each, a 
better marching appearance than their political rivals. 

Thus it happened that in the beginning of the year of 18()1, 
when a free republic of well nigh forty million people became 
insane and proceeded to civil war, armies were formed and drilled 
in quick time, for the political campaign had actually been a pre- 
paratory school for soldiers. That Abraham Lincoln was elected 
and that his journey to Washington was hazardous, is well known, 
'i'hus the orbits of the lives of Lincoln and Lee began to approach 
each other. 

LIEUTENANT GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT 

was one of the greatest, most loyal and praiseworthy of the galaxy 
of heroic soldiers who have commanded our army, from the 
beginning. 

Realizing the palpable fact that President-elect Lincoln's life 
was constantly in danger, comprehending his own grave responsi- 
bilities, and burdened with the fact that his advancing years had 
caused physical limitations, General Scott ordered the most 
strusted and capable of his aides to Washington for the inaugura- 
tion day. It was in obedience to the order of General Scott that 
the ablest Colonel of the Army, Colonel Robert E. Lee, left his 
regiment at Fort Mason, Texas, and arrived at Arlington, March 
L and reported to General Scott at army headquarters on the 
morning of March 3, ISGL To Colonel Robert E. Lee was 
committed the responsibilities and the military authority to safe- 
guard Abraham Lincoln, on his first inauguration day. History 
has not heretofore given ample credit and the well-deserved full 
meed of 

PRAISE TO COLONEL R. E. LEE 

to which he is entitled, for his magnificent management of aftairs 
on that historic occasion. It is time for the American people to 
know and to give credit where credit belongs and honor to whom 
honor is due. The preser\'ation of his life from all enemies, 
public, private and secret, was understood by Abraham Lincoln, 
because General Scott personally told to President Lincoln that 
Colonel Robert E. Lee had been summoned to Washington spe- 
cifically for that military duty; and that he had performed that 
dutv of protecting Abraham Lincoln on inauguration day, as he 
had always performed every duty committed to him, during his 
quarter of a century of honorable, brave, loyal and superior 
patriotic services. No crime was committed, for no crime was 
possible, on account of the absolutely ])erfect preliminary and pre- 
cautionarv arrangements which had been made under the direc- 
tions of Colonel Robert E. Lee, for 

101 



THE INAUGURATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

on the 4th day of March, J8(il. It is recorded that the weather 
in Washington on that date, March 4, 18(J1, was beautiful and 
invigorating, although the political skies were overcast with gloom, 
and with many serious premonitions and signs of the great 
national tragedy which was about to be enacted. 

Although he was officially engaged at the Capitol, President 
Buchanan hastened to the side of the President-elect, although it 
is known that some false friends of Mr. Buchanan insistently 
advised him to "Let Lincoln ride alone." But, fearless concerning 
tiis own safety. President Buchanan was too wise, too patriotic, 
-too prudent and too noble a man to heed such counsels. He knew 
that his presence would compel respect and enhance the safety 
■of the endangered Lincoln. 

-Vt the customary hour of 11 o'clock in the morning President 
Buchanan and Mr. Lincoln came out of the old Willard Hotel, 
■<irm in arm, passed between files of regular army soldiers, and 
•entered an open carriage. Double files of infantry and cavalry 
^immediately formed on each side of them. They were preceded 
by a company of regular infantry, and were closely followed by 
immerous military and civic organizations. Most noteworthy was 
a large car symbolizing the Union, each one of the thirty-five 
States being represented by a little girl dressed in white. 

Colonel Lee had Ijeen careful to have skillful riflemen stationed 
upon the roofs of all of the houses in both sides of Pennsylvania 
Avenue with orders to tire upon any one who might appear at 
any of the windows on the opposite sides, threatening the life of 
the President-elect. All of them were picked men, veteran Indian 
fighters, on whom Colonel Lee could confidently rely. Thus, the 
last great service of Colonel Robert E. Lee, to his country, pro- 
tecting the life and guarding the safety of Abraham Lincoln, on 
inauguration day, was one of his greatest services ; but his biog- 
raphers and panegyrists have not heretofore given him the credit 
for that splendid service. 

For the last time in his life Chief Jtistice Taney stood upon 
the inaugural platform and administered the oath of office. For 
the Dred Scott decision, the lawyer and republican politician, 
.\braham Lincoln had vigorously, not to say viciously, denounced 
tiie venerable Chief Justice. But such differences of opinion never 
interfere with the public functions and duties of our public 
officials. 

Immediately following the administering of the oath of office 
to the new President an exceedingly dramatic incident occurred. 
When Abraham Lincoln came to the front of the platform to 
begin the deliverv of his inaugural address, Senator Stephen A. 

1?2 



Douglas of Illinois, for many years a person friend of Abraham 
Lincoln and his chief competitor in the presidential campaign of 
the preceding year, arose from his seat amongst the Senators, 
stepped to the front and took his stand close beside Lincoln, 
ostensibly for the purpose of holding his hat. But, as a matter of 
fact, Douglas took his stand alondside the great man from his 
home State of Illinois as an emphatic although unspoken warning 
to all present that any shot fired at Lincoln would certainly 
endanger the life of Douglas. 

During the delivery of the entire address Senator Douglas stood 
there. It was a quiet, brave, noble, and magnificent deed. All 
persons present fully comprehended the patriotic purpose of 
"The Little Giant," as he thus patriotically offered his own life, 
if need be, to protect the life of the President of the United 
.^'tates. 

At the conclusion of his address President Lincoln stooped 
down, lifted up and kissed each one of the little girls dressed in 
white who represented the thirty-five sovereign States of the 
Union. 

Then, escorted as ijefore, President Lincoln and ex-President 
Buchanan entered the open carriage and participated in the parade 
to the White House. 

In the evening there was an Inaugural Ball in a temporary 
structure located in Judiciary Square, where the Pension Office is 
now ; but for precautionary reasons President Lincoln did not 
attend. 



PROBABLY— POSSIBLY— MAYBE— PERHAPS 

Nothing produced by mankind is more flat, stale and unprofitable 
than the conjectural post mortems of history. Pamphlets, lectures, 
orations, and some pages of alleged history have set forth all 
phases of the guess-work possibilities or probabilities of what 
turn might have been taken by diurnal events, if Colonel Robert 
E. Lee had been offered or had accepted the command of the 
army of the United States. Even this early after the epochal 
chapter of our history many men have questioned whether or not 
the chief command ever was offered to that masterful soldier. 

Senator John Warwick Daniel of Virginia gave to this narrator 
the most sane suggestion that has been offered by any commentator 
concerning the springtime of l.sni. You must remember that the 
incoming President was surrounded by political enemies, with 
friends as scarce as four-leaf clovers in Labrador. Under the 
direction of the Secretary of War of the preceding administration 
the army had been so disjiosed as to be useful only to the South, 
ill tlie event of a revolution. .Ml of the regimental commanders 

103 



were in sympathy with the pending revolution ; and President 
Lincohi had only one adviser in military affairs whom he could 
trust, and he did not follow the advice of General Scott. Senator 
Daniel said to the writer: 

"Now that it is all over, and almost forgotten, speculation is, 
as you say. valuable to no one, but always interesting. In my 
judgment President Lincoln made only one fatal mistake and, 
maybe, I am wrong about that. But it has always been my belief, 
and it was the belief of General Jubal Early, General Joseph E. 
Johnston, General James Longstreet and others with whom I 
served and with whom 1 have conversed, that there would have 
been no revolution if President Lincoln had acted upon the advice 
of General Scott immediately after his inauguration. General 
Scott could see that the revolution was inevitable unless the State 
of Virginia should refuse to join with the Confederacy which was 
then forming. Virginia was reluctant to leave the Union, and 
General Scott proposed the master stroke which would have kept 
Virginia away from the Confederacy, and unalterably with the 
Federal Government. 

That statement had been made by others, but never with such 
positive utterance ; and Senator Daniel was asked for his source 
of information upon that subject. He replied: 

"General Lee himself told me at Lexington. General Scott 
recommended to President Lincoln and urged upon him the desig- 
nation of Colonel Robert E. Lee to the chief command of the 
army. General Scott wanted to retire because of his advanced 
age. General Scott knew that Colonel Lee was the ablest and best 
officer to succeed him. Personally General Scott went to the 
White House and urged President Lincoln to issue the order. 
But as Colonel Lee was Southern born and bred, and as his 
sympathies were known to be Southern, and as he had been taught 
State Sovereignty at West Point, and thoroughly believed in that 
doctrine and unhesitatingly said so, President Lincoln was appre- 
hensive concerning his fidelity and loyalty, and he would not make 
the needful movement. 

"General Scott privately told Colonel Lee what he was doing, 
and what he was trying to induce President Lincoln to do. 
Colonel Lee assured his friend. General Scott, that he would 
accept the command if then tendered, and that it would be safe 
in his hands. General Scott had no doubt of the man and soldier 
whom he knew so well and so highly esteemed. President Lincoln 
did not know Colonel Lee and was not familiar with his mag- 
nificent soldierly record, and he did not follow the advice of 
(reneral Scott, who was undoubtedly his safest counsellor." 

Senator Daniel, in reply to numerous inquiries, proceeded to 
enlighten his listening friend, saying: 

104 



"Virginia would not have joined the Confederacy if Colonel 
Lee had been placed in chief command of the army. Colonel Lee 
was a force and a power in Virginia, and he was as utterly op- 
posed to secession as was Alexander Stephens and many other 
eminent gentlemen. With the army under the command of 
Colonel Lee all Virginians would have known, and without even 
a shadow of doubt, that there would be no invasion of Virginia ; 
that no invasion would even be contemplated, and the leading 
.secessionists would have been deprived of their strongest argu- 
ments. It is my opinion and it has been the opinion of others 
who were well informed that Virginia would not have joined the 
Confederacy if Colonel Lee had been given chief command of 
the army." 

Senator Daniel was then asked : "Did you ever ask General Lee 
what he would have done if in supreme command?" 

"No, sir." said Senator Datn'el. with some manifestation of 
displeasure. "No, sir, I did not ask General Lee if, under any 
circumstances, he would have been or could have been other than 
a soldier of spotless honor. To know him, as General Scott knew 
him. was sufficient. Whether General Lee ever said so or not, I 
do not know, but I am inclined to believe that he must have so 
expressed himself in the family circle, for his son 'Rooney' once 
said to me: 'If my father had been placed in chief command 
immediately after the inauguration of Lincoln, I am quite sure 
that he would have gone to Richmond wearing his uniform and 
e])aulettes as commander of the Army of the United States, and his 
presence, bearing, and suggestions would have prevented the se- 
cession of Virginia.' " 

And so, ladies and gentlemen of the LTnited States, you will 
comphehend, at last, that Robert E. Lee was more sinned against 
than sinning. 

The vState (if Virginia adojited the ordinance of secession on 
.\pril 17, ISrn. Then, and not until then, on April 18, the very 
<lay following the secession of his native State, the supreme com- 
mand was offered to Colonel Lee. It was taken under advisement 
;'or two days and then it was declined. It was too late. 

General Scott bad been anxious to have that tender of the com- 
mand made in time. Colonel Lee never sought that command, but 
he would have accented it. Fortunatelv for reliable history. Gen- 
eral Lee has given the inside storv of the final tender, although he 
has given it verv 'l)rieflv. Some violent partisan utterances in the 
Senate, in Februarv. ISHR. evoked from the retired hero of (he 
southland a letter, of which the following is a copy: 

105 



"Lexington, Va., February 25, 1868. 
"Hgn. Reverdy Johnson, United States Senate. 

"My Dear Sir: I never intimated to any one that I desired to 
command the United States Army ; nor did I ever have any con- 
versation, except with one gentleman, Mr. Francis Preston Blair, 
on the subject, vi^hich was at his invitation, and, as I understood, 
at the instance of President Lincoln. 

"After listening to his remai^ks, I declined the offer he made 
me, to take command of the army that was in the field ; stating, 
as kindly and as courteously as I could that, though opposed to 
secession and deprecating war, I could take no part in an invasion 
of the Southern States. 

"I went directly from the interview with Mr. Blair to the offices 
of General Scott, told him the propO)Sition that had been made 
to me, and my decision. After reflection, on the second morning 
after that I forwarded my resignation to General Scott." 

Inside of the family circle it was known that General Scott 
very earnestly urged Colonel Lee to accept the command. Gen- 
eral Scott believed that, even then, Virginia would retrace her 
steps politically, and remain in the Union, under such circum- 
stances. But Colonel Lee, after seriously reflecting upon the 
great problem, concluded that the tender had come to him too late. 
Consequently, he wrote his resignation and enclosed it in a letter 
to General Scott, a letter which we can read today only with tears, 
as we now comprehend how moistened likewise must have been 
the eyes and the cheeks of that great and good man whose sense 
of duty impelled him to break the associations of a lifetime, and 
to do so with a breaking heart. Read carefully, and, if you know 
how, read these letters prayerfully: 

"Arlington, Washington City P. O., April 20, 1861. 
"Honorable Simon Cameron, Secretary of War. 

"Sir : I have the honor to tender my resignation of my com- 
mand as Colonel of the First Regiment of Cavalry. 
"Very respectfully, vour obedient servant, 

"R. E. Lee, 
"Colonel, First Cavalry." 

That letter was mailed at the post-office of the city c,i Washing- 
ton on the afternoon of the date of the letter, April 20, 1861. 

At the same time the following personal letter was mailed to 
Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, Commanding the Army of 
the United States. Both letters were autographic, and written 
with a quill pen : 

106 



"Arlington, Virginia, April 20, 1861. 

"General: Since my interview with you on the 18th inst., I 
have felt that I ought not longer to retain my commission in the 
Army. I therefore tender my resignation, which I request you 
will recommend for acceptance. It would have been presented 
at once but for the struggle which it has cost me to separate my- 
self from a service to which I have devoted the best years o,f my 
life, and all of the ability that I possessed. 

"During the whole of that time — more than a quarter of a cen- 
tury — I have experienced nothing but kindness from my superiors 
and a most cordial fellowship from my comrades. 

"To no one, General, have I 'been as much indebted as td your- 
self for uniform kindness and consideration, and it has always 
been my ardent desire to meet your approbation. I shall carry 
to the grave the most grateful recollections of your kind consid- 
eration, and your name and fame will always be dear to me. 

"Save in the defense of my native State, I never desire again 
to draw my sword. 

"Be pleased to accept my most earnest wishes for the continu- 
ance of your happiness and prosperity. Believe me. most truly 
yours, 

"R.E.Lee." 

On the same date, April 20. 1801. Colonel Lee wrote to his- 
brother, S. S. Lee, as fellows : 

"My Dear Brother Smith : War seems to have commenced, 
and I am liable at any time to be ordered on duty which I could 
not conscientiously perform. To save me from such a position, 
and to prevent the necessity of resigning under orders, I have 
had to go at once, and I am now a private citizen and have no 
other ambition than to remain at home." 



10^ 



ECCE HOMO 

WHEN the Christ was briefly outlining the grandeur of the 
glory of the Almighty in all things, and using the marvels 
of vegetation for illustration. He said: "Consider the lilies 
of the field. Not Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one 
of these." And you must comprehend that Solomon has never 
been excelled nor exceeded for power, glory and grandeur by any 
other ruler. 

Whoever would properly describe President Abraham Lincoln 
must find some such expressively powerful illustration, because 
not Solomon, Socrates, nor any other individual of intellectual 
achievement was ever blessed with such boundless intellectual 
capabilities ; and yet, the men and women of his day and gener- 
ation knew as little of his unpretentious superiority over them, as 
your neighbor and your friend know of the marvelous beauties of 
the lilies of the field, as they are revealed today by the microscope. 

President Abraham Lincoln undou1)tedly absorbed the words 
and the wisdom of the Man of Gallilee so completely that his daily 
life reflected that philosophy. Not only did he read, but he be- 
lieved that "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." M!ore- 
over. President Lincoln understood, comprehended and lived in 
obedience to the command : "Take ye therefore no thought for 
the morrow." 

In those two expressions Mr. Lincoln undou'bttdlv found con- 
densed the knowledge, wisdom and influence of the philosophies of 
all the ages ; for the meaning, as yet unknown to the millions who 
have their names enrolled as Christians ; the lesson of those two 
expressions is embraced in two words: "Don't worrv!" 

It was the divinelv given revelation to the mind of President 
Lincoln that enabled him to meet with cheery expressions the 
heralds bringing news of disasters and distresses, because he often 
repeated the inspired words: "Sufficient tmto the day is the evil 
thereof." 

And so, with the light of a God-given superiority, President 
Lincoln illumined the doings of everv day with wise philosophies 
which were quaint to those around him who "with eyes to see, 
see not." And for these reasons it is deemed fitting to invite at- 
tention to a few illustrations of his philosophy with some 

10R 



RARE STORIES OF LINCOLN 

Secretary Stanton came to the White House one afternoon to 
protest against a pardon which President Lincohi had issued for 
a soldier sentenced to be shot for desertion. Stanton said : 

"That mother-in-law who came to you this morning was only 
shedding crocodile tears. vShe dt)esn't care for that son-in-law. 
I'm told that she merely came as a matter of duty, because she 
had opposed the marriage of her daughter to that man, and to 
refuse to plead for his life would have been almost unpardonable. 
But she didn't care for the pardon and didn't expect it." 

"All of that was very clear to me, Stanton," was the reply of 
the wonderful Lincoln. 

"I only looked at her once, and then patiently listened to her. 
I had made up my mind to issue the pardon before that mother- 
in-law began to talk and weep. I did not look at her a second 
time, nor pay any heed to what she was saying. The pardon was 
issued, in my mind, as soon as I looked at that poor, frail, tear- 
less Madonna, the girl who would soon be a widow but for me. I 
led the poor girl to a seat, then wrote and placed the pardon in 
her hands. I bade her good-bye, but the tears that fell onto my 
hand were from the eyes of the child-wife, whose grief had 'been 
so deep that she had been tearless until she held that pardon." 

SENATOR JAMES HARLAN'S NARRATIONS 

Senator James Harlan of Iowa, valued and helpful friend of 
my parentless childhood, walking about Mount Pleasant, Iowa, 
one evening while the writer was there at the university, narrated 
several impressive incidents concerning Lincoln, in whose Cabinet 
he had served as Secretary of the Interior, and all of those stories 
have lingered vividly in memory. 

It was after a defeat of the Federal army in 18G3, when all 
loyal men were agonized and apprehensive, that Senator Harlan 
voiced his fears, when Abraham Lincoln said: 

"Men do not realize the value of the teachings of the Man of 
Nazareth. Few men know how to say their prayers, and fewer 
still know how to pray at all. I believe in God, and when I pray 
I want to have 'my windows opened toward Jerusalem.' " 

Senator Harlan then said: "My young friend, you should read 
and become familiar with your Bible. In that one sentence 
President Lincoln showed his familiarity with the story of Daniel 
when in captivity; for when all prayer (except to the king) had 
been forbidden. Daniel continued to pray, and the conspirators 
saw that he fearlessly 'kept his windows opened toward Jerusa- 
lem.' " 

Senator Harlan happened to be at the White Hou.se one morn- 

109 



ing when President Lincoln stated his solution of the Mormon 
question by narrating one of his piercing parables. One of the 
callers that day was Governor Cuming of Utah Territory, who 
had been recalled from that position. President Lincoln listened 
to the verbal report of Cuming, which concluded with the state- 
ment that "no Governor of Utah can be successful, nor even par- 
tially successful, unless he becomes a Mormon and a polygamist." 

"I know all about the situation there, Cuming," replied the 
President, as he cordially greeted the removed official and raised 
his voice so that newspaper men and others could hear him as he 
said : 

"Your administration at Salt Lake City has 'been satisfactory, 
and I am making a change wholly on account of that Mormon 
question. To emphasize my confidence in you, I have made out 
your appointment for another position. This Mormon question 
reminds me of a farmer friend of mine who was bothered for 
years by a big black-gum log which encumbered one of his best 
fields, and it was one of the most fertile fields in Illinois, too. 

"You see, Cuming, that log was too big to be moved, and it 
occupied a splendid plot for corn or wheat. It was toq wet to 
burn. It was too coarse and obstinate of texture to be chopped 
or split. That big log bothered my farmer friend every day in 
all of the years in planting and in growing. During harvesting 
time it even kept him from sleeping. 

PLOWING AROUND 

"Sometimes, during the many years, his good wife would hear 
the deacon uttering words which were unbecoming for a deacon ; 
but she did not reprove him. As a matter of fact, that big black- 
gum log bothered the good wife, too, for it diminished her proper 
number of sunbonnets, gingham aprons and parloyr furniture. In 
their old age she was made very happy one morning in spring- 
time when Josiah went out to harness the horses for the plowing, 
as he stood in the door, hat in hand, and said : 

" 'Mother, I've got that big black-gum log 'question ofif of my 
mind at last. It's all settled. It won't worry us any more.' 

" 'Lan's sakes, Josiah,' exclaimed the old deaconess, 'how on 
airth have you got it done for?' 

" ' 'Tain't done for, Cynthy,' he replied. 'It's jest settled, once 
and fer all. We must do jest what we been a'do^n' all the time ; 
and that's the only thing to do. We've jest got to plow around 
the derned old thing." 

And now, after all of these years, the long-time troublesome 
Mormon question has been settled, because the country finally 
gave up the subject and 'just plowed around it.' until it settled 
itself. 

no 



SLANDER MERELY AMUSED LINCOLN 

A mischief-maker told President Lincoln that his Secretary o,f 
War, Stanton, had spoken of him as a baboon. The President 
made the mischief-maker happy by seriously asking if he could 
prove that Stanton had said such a thing. The reply was : 

"Stanton said it recently to Judge Holt, and there comes Judge 
Holt now. You can ask him." 

Still looking very grave, seemingly offended and angry, Presi- 
dent Lincoln beckoned to Judge Holt, who, of course, responded 
immediately. Then, in the presence of the happy mischief-maker, 
Mr. Lincoln asked if Stanton had made such a remark. Judge 
Holt tried to evade the question, but to the intense gratification 
of the mischief-maker, who hated Stanton, the President in- 
sisted upon an answer, and finally Judge Holt said : 

"Yes. Mr. President, the Secretary of War did speak of you 
as a big baboon, but it was one of Stanton's cursory remarks. 1 
would not pay any attention to it if I were you." 

"P.nt I must." said President Lincoln. "H you had said such 
a thing, or if our friend here had called nie a bal)0()n, I might not 
pay any attention to it. But if Stanton said it, the matter is a 
very serious one ; because, as you know, gentlemen. Stanton is 
generally right." 

TRIBUTE OF SENATOR FESS. 

Addressing the House of Representatives of tl>e American Con- 
gress on a special occasion. Representative Fess said : 

"Who is this man, that he could thus speak and write? Born 
in a hut in Kentucky ; at the age of 7 he accompanied his parents 
and sister into Indiana, where they lived one winter in an open 
camp with but three sides to it ; and yet, without having gone to 
school more than six months all told, according to his own state- 
ment, here is a man, thus starting with no conveniences, who 
reached a plane, an ability to speak and write the English lan- 
guage not reached by any of the scholars of his day. 

"Where is the secret? I think that it might be found in the 
sort of books he read. 

"The one book with which he was quite familiar was King 
James' version of the Bible. I once heard Parks Cadman, pastor 
of the greatest Congregational Church in the world, say that 
Abraham Lincoln's verbal knowledge of the Bible was not equaled 
by any of the theologians. I would not say that upon my own 
authority, 'but cite it upon his authority. 

"Lincoln knew Shakespeare, and in the darkest hours of the 
life of the nation, in the midst of great depression, often when 
the Cabinet was in session, Mr. Lincoln would quote page after 

111 



page of Shakespeare, until the scholarly Seward would turn to 
him and say : 

" 'Mr. President, our understanding has been that you have 
never gone to school, and yet you quote Shakespeare as I do uQt, 
and I am regarded somewhat as a Shakespearian scholar.' 

" 'Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress' was another book that he read. 
Feed a growing mind upon the English of these texts and you 
will have a choice of English." 

The scholarly Congressman also said : "I think that the high- 
water mark of Lincoln's mastery of expression was reached when, 
looking back over four years of awful war, he said : 

"Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each 
invokes His aid against the other. The prayers of both could 
not be answered. That of neither has l)een answered fully. The 
.'\lmighty has Plis own purposes.'' 

GETTYSBURG SPEECH 

Go to the British Museum, where can be found books enough, 
if put on a single shelf, to reach forty miles. Ask there for the 
finest short speech in the English language and you will be handed 
at once the splendid piece of rhetoric, high mark of literary ap- 
preciation and statesmanlike delivery, uttered by Abraham Lin- 
coln at Gettysburg, November 19, 1863, beginning: 

"Fourscore and seven years ago^ our fathers brought forth on 
this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to 
the proposition that all men are created equal." 

"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty 
scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that 
it continue until all the wealth piled up by the bondman's two 
hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and 
until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid by an- 
other drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, 
so still it must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and 
righteous altogether.' " 

From the cradle to the grave Abraham Lincoln was blessed with 
adversity and misfortune sufficient to constantly compel his best 
efforts at all times. 

LINCOLN LIKED JOHN MORGAN 

Congressman Samuel S. Cox, long time famous in the halls of 
Congress, told the narrator of a visit which he hurriedly paid at 
the White House one morning when the Confederate raider, John 
Morgan, was careering over Ohio, doing great damage and seem- 
ingly incapable of defeat or capture. Congressman Cox went tq 
the White House for information, saying substantially: 

113 



"Mr. President, I have 'l)een to the War Department, but can 
get no information concerning John Morgan. Can you tell me 
anything about him ? Where is he ? W^ill he capture Columbus ? 
Will he " 

"He has not told me yet," replied Mr. Lincoln, "but I wcvild 
be willing to make a bet that he will capture Columbus if he can, 
and carry of¥ your live stock and fancy chickens, Mr. Cox, if he 
can get them. No, we don't know this morning just where he is, 
l)Ut vou may be pretty sure that our boys will catch him soon. 
When they do get him, 1 want to see him." 

ONE OF MORGAN'S TRICKS 

"I like that rascal, Mr. Cox, like him very much," continued Mr. 
Lincoln. "John has a sense of humor which thoroughly human- 
izes him. He captures mail trains, examines all of the letter mail, 
lets ordinary correspondence go right along, but the big envelopes 
with the War Department imprint he takes possession of, exam- 
ines, and uses for his own military purposes. (July this morning 
I heard of one of his tricks, and what do you suppose it was? 

"In one of the big envelopes there was a commission promoting 
a second lieutenant to be major of his -regiment; the promotion 
was made for merit and courage. Down in one corner of the 
commission John read the words, '.\pproved, A. Lincoln." 

" 'Approved by me, also, John Morgan,' the raiding rebel wrote, 
and he forwarded that commission to the worthy ofificer. I tell 
you. friend Cox, I like John and hope to see him one of these days, 
and very soon." 

AMERICA'S GREATEST DIPLOMAT 

Even so strong and patriotic a man as Horace (ireeley pub- 
lished an open letter to Lincoln, in 1803. calling the President an 
opportunist and denouncing his policies. In his reply Mr. Lincoln 
plainly stated that he did not ivant to be knozvn in history as "The 
Emancipator," 'but that his chief purpose was to ".save the Union.'' 
Here are his words : 

"My paramount object is to save the Union, and not either to 
save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without free- 
ing any slave, I would do it. If I could save it by freeing all of the 
slaves, I would do it. 

"I am ready to accept any new views as soon as they are proved 
to be true views." 

Well, by the course which he pursued the Union was saved, 
and today it is the Gibraltar of the democracy of the world. Great 
as was the cause of emancipation for the enslaved people, greater 

113 



was the cause of saving this Union and making it the great nation 
that it is today, "one and inseparable." 

Judah P. Benjamin, subsequently one of the greatest lawyers 
known in Great Britain, formerly Senator from Louisiana, in 
1863, was one of the greatest constitutional and international law- 
yers in America. He was Secretary of State of the Confederacy 
and one of the greatest diplomats in the world. Under his direc- 
tion, consular agents had secured from Great Britain and France 
assurances of the recognition of the Confederacy, while they had 
also secured encouragement from Italy and Germany. Senator 
James Harlan of Iowa, intimate friend of President Lincoln, 
and of his son, Robert Todd Lincoln, who married Mary Harlan, 
daughter of Senator Harlan, had his home in Mount Pleasant, 
Iowa, and the very learned Senator became interested in a hard- 
working, bread-winning student of a college located there and 
helped him in many ways. On one occasion Senator Harlan gave 
the young man this item of wonderful interest which seems not 
to have been known to history heretofore. Senator Harlan said : 
"President Lincoln did not tell his Secretary of State nor any- 
one else his purpose when he issued the proclamation of Septem- 
ber ; and it was not a Proclamation of Emancipation. It was a 
proclamation of warning, and threatening emancipation unless the 
Government at Richmond should cease its revolution. 

"President Lincoln hoped and very earnestly hoped that Secre- 
tary Benjamin or some other astute Confederate would under- 
stand the situation and act accordingly. But nobody seemed to 
comprehend President Lincoln, the war continued, and on the 
first of the following January, President Lincoln was obliged to 
issue the Emancipation Proclamation, as a fulfillment of the 
threatening warning which he had issued three months before 
that New Year day. 

"That Emancipation Proclamation was a stroke of diplomacy 
rather than an a'bolition movement. That proclamation demon- 
strated Abraham Lincoln to be a greater diplomat than Judah P. 
Benjamin ; indeed, one of the greatest diplomats in the whole 
world. 

"That Proclamation of Emancipation put the people and the 
Government of the vSouthern Confederacy in the attitude of fight- 
ing, primarily and almost exclusively, for human slavery. Thus 
Lincoln, the great diplomat, made it impossible for any of the 
courts of the crowned heads of Europe to give recognition to the 
Southern Confederacy." 

With this information from such an authoritative source, the 
writer has stated and repeats with emphasis that Abraham Lin- 
coln was not primarily an emancipator, but the greatest diplomat 
in the world when he issued that proclamation. 

Hi 



LINCOLN APPEARS LIKE THE MAN OF GALILEE 

After the second Ijattle of Bull Run, sick and wounded soldier 
boys from Confederate as well as Federal lines were conveyed to 
Washington and placed in the general hc^spitals there. On the 
last Saturday in September of that year, President Lincoln started 
out from the White House in the morning with the determination 
that he would visit, if possible, all of the hospitals; and the entire 
day was spent inspecting conditions and encouraging the unfor- 
tunates with the kind words of the famous President of the 
United States. In the evening, near sundown, after leaving the 
Navy Yard FlQspital. the tired and weary President was about 
entering the carriage to return to the White House, after an un- 
usually strenuous day, when a nurse came running after him and 
asking if he would return and see again a Confederate soldier 
boy, less than sixteen years of age, who was dying. The tired 
President promptly responded to the call, re-entered the hospital, 
went to the bedside of the badly-wovmded boy, gently caressed 
him and asked : 

■'What can I do for you, my boy? Anything?" 

''Yes, Mr. President," replied the boy in feeble tones, "I hope 
that you can tell me what my mother would want me to do or to 
say before I pass away." 

'T am glad you sent for me, my boy," said President Lincoln 
as he knelt beside the cot, took the boy's head and shoulders in his 
arms and said : "I am very sure your mother would want you to 
repeat these words after me," and the boy did repeat the prayer 
of his childhood as Abraham Lincoln, President of the United 
States, knelt there holding the boy in his arms and saying : 

" 'Now I lay me down to sleep, 
I pray the Lord my soul to keep, 
H I should die before I wake, 
I pray the Lord my soul to take.' " 

That is the greatest picture ever painted of Abraham Lincoln, 
for it shows him in the character of the Man of Galilee. The 
dying Confederate soldier boy lived long enough to repeat the last 
line, and, leaving his body in the arms of the President of the 
L^nited States, his spirit "ran up with joy the shining way to see 
and praise the Lord." 

RESTRAINING RESTLESS, RECKLESS "ROONIE" 

On the 17th of April, ISGL the ordinance of secession was 
passed by the Legislature of \'irginia. On the following day, the 
18th of April, the command of the United States Army was 
offered to Colonel Robert E. Lee, and the proposition was laid 
before General Winrteld Scott, the veteran military hero, who was 



Colonel Lee's best friend, and the great soldier urgently advised 
Colonel Lee to accept the offer. 

While Colonel Lee was trying to induce himself to view this 
offer favorably, the Sixth Massachusetts Infantry came to Balti- 
more on April ID, and was Obliged to %ht its way through mobs 
in order to continue its journey to the defense of the National 
Capital. On the morning of the '^Oth o.f April Colonel Lee, in 
his home at Arlington mansion, read an account of the battle in 
Baltimore, turned to his faithful wife and said: 

"Mary Ann, the war is on. Nothing can now prevent the in- 
vasion of Virginia. I must write and send in my resignation at 
once." 

As explained in preceding pages, the resignation was forwarded 
to General Scott and on the 22nd oi April Colonel Lee, accom- 
panied by his family, turned their backs upon the great estate 
and with their faces towards Richmond, the Capital of the newly 
created Confederacy, they left their home forever. 

Two large wagons were tilled with household goods and me- 
mentoes, all of the Lares and Penates and heirlooms of the Lees 
were lc\aded on those wagons, and yet many thousand dollars 
worth of silverware and gold were left in the colonial mansion 
in care of the slaves who were never again to see their masters 
nor their mistress. 

As the evening sun was silvering the tree tops and tinting with 
gold the eastern horizon, Mary Ann Randolph Lee walked towards 
the graves of her father and mother, one hundred yards south of 
the mansion, and knelt between those graves in silent prayer. 
While kneeling there she was joined quietly by her husband and 
her sons Custis, "Rooney" and Robert. 

Upon their return to the mansion, the young gentlemen mounted 
horses while Colonel Lee entered the large carriage, but his wife 
turned away and went to the front of the mansion where she dis- 
covered "Rooney" Lee upon the po^rtico which he had climbed, 
hauling down the Stars and Stripes. 

"Stop. Rooney, stop where you are," exclaimed his mother, 
"but leave the flag where it is at half mast. That properly ex- 
presses the funereal feeling of my heart." 

So it happened that "Rooney" was restrained from his rebel- 
lious purpose and when the Lee family left Arlington mansion 
the Stars and Stripes, although at half mast, were still afloat. 

SAD LAST SCENE AT ARLINGTON 

Before entering the carriage with her husband the unhappy 
great grand-daughter of Martha Washington turned towards the 
mansion and exclaimed : 

"Virginia, oh, Virginia, my native State, for thee all that I 
have T now resign. Good-bye. playground of my childhood, good- 



bye play -ground of my children, good-bye home of my father and 
mother, good-bye home of my husband. All this and all that I 
have and all that I ever have had, I resign for my native State, 
Virginia. Good-bye, Arlington. God save Virginia !" 

DAUGHTER OF PRESIDENT JOHN TYLER 

When Letitia C. Tyler, daughter of former President John 
Tyler, was in the sixtieth year of her age, in the year 1908, she 
said to the writer of this histoxic story; 

"I was visiting a school chum in Alabama and thus happened 
to be in Montgomery on March 4, 18G1, when the Government 
of the Confederacy w^as inaugurated. I was only fourteen years 
old and only looked upon it as an unusual lark when the honor 
was given to me tO; haul aloft the first flag of the Confederacy. I 
stood alongside of the cupola of the State House in Montgomery, 
pulled the rope and hauled up the flag ; but my hands were too 
small, and my muscles too weak; so a well-clad and well-bred 
Irish gentleman laid down on the roof alongside o.f me and hauled 
the flag in place, so that no'body in making a report of the afifair 
knew anything of the presence of my assistant. His name was 
not known to me and it never will be known in history, although 
it should be. I, alone, have been honored with the place in history 
as having been the one who hauled up to the breezes the first flag 
of the Confederacy." 

ORIGIN OF "THE SOUTHERN CROSS" 

One of the greatest battle flags ever known, one under which 
tens of thousands of brave American soldiers fought for the Con- 
federacy, and under which many thousands of them were killed 
and wounded, was generally known as "The Southern Cross." 
That wonderful flag was originated in the brain of Hamilton 
Dudley Coleman, a 16-year-old l)oy who admired, followed, and 
afterwards became a member of the Washington Artillery of 
New Orleans, La. In that organization he served as a ]:»rivate 
soldier after the year 1863. 

During the first great battle of the war, (^i July 31, 1861, it 
was discovered that the likeness of the Stars and Bars to the 
Stars and Stripes rendered it unfit for use in battle. Just at that 
time the Washington Arlillery arrived and floated "The Southern 
Cross" over the tent of their commanding officer. General Joseph 
E. Johnston immediately recognized its value as a battle flag, 
adopted it, raised it over his own headf|uarters. and that was the 
beginning of the famous "Southern Cross" of the Confederacy. 
The original design was made by young Coleman. 

In the Li'brarv of Congress there is a history of the Washington 

iir 



Artillery, and one of the illustrations shows "The Southern Cross" 
floating over the headquarters of the battery at New Orleans, 
before the organization went to, the battle fronts. 

BATTLE OF BRANDY STATION 

Unconsciously to themselves, Lincoln and Lee came together 
in a dramatic and tragic manner as the result of a battle on June 
10, 18t)3 ; a contest, which, in those days of great struggles, was 
practically inconsequential. It is known as the Battle of Brandy 
Station. During the battle, which was an onslought by the Con- 
federate cavalry, Brigadier General W. H. F. Lee was wounded 
in the groin; an injury similar to that which had caused the death 
of the great Confederate tactician and brave leader, General Al- 
bert Sidney Johnston at the preceding great battle of Pittsburgh 
Landing, a battle in which the sun of fame and fortune would 
have set forever on General Ulysses S. Grant, but for the death of 
the Confederate General Johnston. 

When "Rooney"' was wounded in that battle and was falling 
from his horse, another Lee, with military intuition and courage 
marching in the direction of a sound of conflict, came galloping 
upon the field, and that other Lee was the great Confederate Com- 
mander, General Robert E. Lee, who saw his beloved son as he 
•was lifted from the charger and laid upon a stretcher. Under 
direction of the father, the wounded son was taken to the home 
of General Wickham, uncle of his wife, and cared for there while 
General Robert E. Lee returned to the battle field. 

Within a very few hours, the wife of "Rooney" was 'by his 
bedside and he was receiving every attention that was required 
and that could be given. But a troop of Federal cavalry 
surrounded the residence of General Wickham., captured the 
wounded General, took him away from his weeping wife and 
screaming children, and conveyed him to Fortress Monroe, where 
he was placed on a cot in the Federal Hospital. 

"GOD BE WITH YOU TILL WE MEET AGAIN" 

Couriers and messengers conveyed the sad news to the mother 
of "Rooney" and also to his marvelous and miraculously incom- 
parable brother, General George Washington Custis Lee, who 
was on the staff of the President of the Confederate States at 
his headquarters in Richmond. Without delay, Custis Lee ob- 
tained permission from President Davis and immediately hastened 
to the side of the wife of his younger brother. 

Charlotte ran to Custis, embraced him, remained in his arms 
with her head upon his shoulder, as she had stood beside him 
several years previously in the War Department at Washington. 
On the former occasion, her beautiful face was wreathed in be- 

118 



witching smiles; but on this occasion the Confederate uniform 
of General Custis Lee was dampened with a torrent of tears. 
Custis Lee, vv^ithout reserve, held the wife of his brother in his 
arms and stroked her golden curly locks with sympathetic and 
parental affection. When the sobs ceased to pervade the room, 
Custis said : 

"Charlotte, you must go to the mountains and care for your 
health and the health of the little girls. I am going under a flag 
of truce to see your wounded husband and tell him that, so long 
as I live, my younger brother shall receive my affection and pro- 
tection." 

"I am glad you are going, Custis,'' said Charlotte, "because I 
knew your great heart so well that I would not be surprised if 
you would give up your life for your brother or even for me." 

Charlotte did not know, and she never did know, that the life 
of her husband was in grave danger at that time. Custis, how- 
ever, did know that the Federal Secretary of War, Stanton, in 
Washington, had issued an order that "Rooney" should be held 
as a hostage for Federal officers in Richmond, who were threat- 
ened with hanging, and a further order that "Rooney" Lee should 
be hanged, if those Federal officers should be required to suffer 
that fate. 

"If it were necessary to save the life of 'Rooney,' " said Custis, 
"I would gladly offer my life in place of his. And I want to 
assure you, Charlotte, that if we never meet again, and the neces- 
sity should arise, I will offer my life for my brother on his own 
account, but even more, my dear Charlotte, because of his wife, 
the girl whom I have loved from her babyhood, the girl whom I 
gave up and for whom I have remained a bachelor because my 
brother loved her so much." 

Charlotte glided from his arms and fell on the floor in a faint. 
Her mother in the next room hastened to her side. When Char- 
lotte recovered and seated, with heart-breaking sobs which words 
cannot describe, she said : 

"Mother, at last I have learned the truth. It is as I told you. 
My life-long love for Custis has been fulfilled by the life-long 
love of Custis for me. He is going nqw to the side of his wounded 
brother, not only for 'Rooney 's' sake, but for my sake." 

Charlotte went again to Custis and said : 

"You do not realize, Custis, how near the end of life 1 ani. 
I have been an honest and faithful wife to 'Rooney,' but all of the 
love of my heart has been yours, and if I should live, which I 
do not believe is possible, we must not meet again in this life. 
And so, Custis, we must part and I must say gocd-bye ; but my 
heart is happier for this meeting. So good-bye, Custis. Go to 
my husband, care for your brother, and 'God be with you 'till 
we meet again.' " 

119 



CUSTIS UNDER FLAG OF TRUCE 

After leaving Charlotte with her wonderful good-bye words 
ringing in his ears and stamped forever on his brain, Custis Lee 
went to the headquarters of the Army of Northern Virginia and 
obtained from his father a pass through the lines with a flag 
of truce, and under that flag of truce he proceeded to Fortress 
Monroe. Upon his arrival there, he said to the Commander of 
that fort: 

"I have come, sir, to see my wounded brother, General W. H. F. 
Lee, and to ofifer myself as a hostage in his place. Let there 'be 
an order issued to retain me and send my brother back to his wife 
and children. If you want to break the heart of General Robert 
E. Lee, you can accomplish that purpose by hanging his oldest son 
instead of the younger son. I am a bachelor. You need not 
crush and mangle an innocent woman and children even in time 
of war. Take your vengeance out on me." 

Startled, astounded and unable to comprehend this marvelous 
development of the doctrine of Jesus of Nazareth, the Federal 
commander quoted the words : 

"Greater love hath no man than this, that he will lay down his 
life for another." 

Inasmuch as it was far beyond his authority to accomplish 
such a purpose, the Federal Commander telegraphed the Secretary 
of War at Washington fof permission to accept the ofifer of Gen- 
eral Custis Lee to become an hostage for his brother, and to die 
for his brother. The implacable Secretary of W^ir, Stanton, at 
Washington, replied : 

"Hold both of the sons of Robert E. Lee until further orders." 

The excuse fo,r that order was that two Federal Captains were 
under sentence in Richmond. They were to be hanged in reprisal 
for the hanging of two Confederate spies in Tennessee, by order 
of the Federal General Burnside, some weeks previously. Secre- 
tary Stanton was relentless and implacable against the Confed- 
eracy and against every individual participant in the Confederate 
cause. 

LEE AND JEFFERSON DAVIS 

Information concerning this horrible and frightful war condi- 
tion was conveyed to, Robert E. Lee and he hastened to Richmond 
for the aid of President Jefiferson Davis. After the case had 
been stated to him. President Davis said : 

"You needn't worry. General Lee. because A. Lincoln will not 
permit such an outrage." 

"Lincoln will not know anything about this condition," replied 
General Lee. Stanton will carry out this diabolical purpcse and 

120 



Lincoln will know nothing of it until it has hecn accomplished 
and both of my sons are dead.'" 

President Jefferson Davis then pulled the hig hell rope to sum- 
mon his military aide. He then took a pen and wrote a telegram 
to President Lincoln requesting his interference to save the lives 
of the sons of General Lee, and when the aide arrived, President 
Davis read the telegram to General Lee. then handed it to the aide 
and said : 

"Send that through the military lines. Request the h'ederal 
Commander to see that that goes directly to Abraham Lincoln in 
the White tlouse." 

(leneral Lee grasped the hand of his Chieftain and the gray- 
haired soldier, with his beard _grown gray in the service of the 
L'nited States Army, gras])ed the hand of the President and said: 

"That will cause delay. Mr. President, undoubtedly, and at least 
one of my sons can be saved and I cannot express my gratitude 
and thanks in words." 

"It will not only cause delay," replied President Davis, "but it 
will save the lives of both of your sons; for. you must know. 
( jeneral Lee, that I have great admiration for that rail-splitter 
President in Washington. Abe Lincoln is neither a Goth nor a 
X'andal. When Lincoln knows this case, he will save your splen- 
<lid boys. I 'believe that he will give Stanton a tanning, too." 

LIXCOLX AXD STANTON 

It was nearing midnight when the Secretary of War entered 
ihe White House in response to an unusually mandatory message 
from President Lincoln and when he stood before that marvelous 
man. President Lincoln handed him the telegram and said : 

"What does this mean? Tell me the entire story and omit 
nothing." 

Secretary Stanton stated the case with his habitual earnestness 
and mandatory manner. He wound up his statement by saying : 

"Mr. President, the lives of those two Federal Captains are as 
precious to their families as are the lives of those Lee boys to 
their family. If our men are hanged in Richmond, both of the 
sons of Robert E. Lee should be hanged." 

President Lincoln walked about the room stroking his fofehead 
with his left hand, as was his custom upon occasions requiring 
all of his judicial and executive ability, and finally he said: 

"Stanton, the doctrine of 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a 
tooth' was superseded lotig ago by a sacrifice upon the Cross at 
^ fount Calvary. The One that was hanged upon that Cross had 
said : 'A new commandment I give unto you. that you love one 
another.' Stanton, if a crime is committed in Richmond. I cannot 
prevent it. Rut a crime like that committed under my jurisdiction 

121 



would stamp upoji my heart by command of my conscience the 
word 'murderer.' Stanton, it can't be done. It shan't be done!" 

Stanton undertook to argue the case further, but President Lin- 
coln interrupted him by saying: 

"Stanton, we are not savages. Let us see what the book says." 

President Lincoln opened wide a large edition of the Bi'ble, 
which was always upon his desk. Turning to the New Testament, 
he laid aside leaf after leaf until finally he came to the page which 
he knew so well and said: 

"Stanton, here is a command from Almighty God in His book. 
Read these words yourself: 'Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, 
sayeth the Lord.' " 

Turning his back upon Secretary Stanton, President Lincoln 
walked to the desk of an ever-present telegraph operator, wrote 
a couple of lines with a lead pencil, and directed the sending of 
the telegram to the officer in command at Fortress Monroe, order- 
ing: 

"Immediately release both of the sons of Robert E. Lee and 
send them back to their father. A. Lincoln." 



122 



EVIDENTIARY FACTS 

SEQUEL FOR THE PERMANENT HISTORY 

of 
AMERICAN KNIGHTHOOD 



OFFICIAL STATEMENTS 

STORY OF THE TRAGEDY-DRAMA TOLD IN THE 
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD 

HERETOFORE it has not been known that the spirit of that 
boundless Love which is "wider, deeper than the sea;" that 
the world-wide, humanity-absorbing spirit of the Man of 
Galilee had come into the campaigns and pervaded "a hundred 
circling camps," by night and by day, when "the morning light is 
breaking," as well as "in the evening dews and damps." 

That spirit came, mellowed the hearts of men in the midst of 
civil war; came when Hatred and Slaughter inflamed the minds 
of men, when Rapine and Murder stalked our prairies and trav- 
ersed our mountains, and crimsoned our streams ; came when this 
wonderful country where all "are created equal," was devastated 
by Thor, the God of Battles and of Plunder. 

It is wonderful, startling because miraculous, that the spirit of 
divine unselfishness should have come to leaven the lives of men 
in the land which was seething with civil strife. Because of facts 
stranger than fiction and grander than even the imagination of 
I'.Iilton or Goethe could depict, we do not need to dof¥ our caps 
to propaganda-ed gallantry nor to heralded chivalry; for we do 
rot need to retrace our steps to the "days of old when knights 
were bold, and barons held their sway." 

Our American heroes do not clank about in weighty armor, 
bearing silvered nor golden shields. The chivalric natures of the 
Round Table whose knightly deeds have haloed and aureoled 
story and romance could not compare with the almost indescribable 
knight errantry, the heart-to-heart majesty of our American 
Damon and Pythias. 

123 



The soldier Ijoys of America, tens of thousands of them clad in 
garments of butternut or gra}-, and hundreds of thousands of them 
clad in uniforms of blue, followed Grant and Lee almost two 
generations ago. It was during that frightful nightmare of 
American history that the spirit of the Nazarene appeared. 

For the glory of American manhood and for the honor of the 
womanhood of our country, this story should be known in every 
home. 

When Pythias returned in time to save the life of his faithful, 
trusting, self-sacrificing friend, the Tyrant of Syracuse was 
startled with the manifestation of friendship; the story before his 
eyes of unselfish devotion. 

That Tyrant knew as all men know the fact of today, yesterday 
and all of the ages, that man builds his world on self alone, from 
turrent to foundation stone. Unselfishness, genuine brotherly love, 
might be cultivated in flights of imagination, by poets and ro- 
mancers, but real unselfishness, involving life or death, startled 
the Tyrant, so that he desired a partnership in that little cosmos 
of unselfishness. 

Likewise was the world startled, when there came One out of 
Nazareth, from the Manger of Bethlehem, teaching that larger 
lesson of self-sacrifice : "All that a man hath will he give for 
his life." and the corollary: "Greater love than this, hath no man ;" 
the Son of Man, who 

"Took the Harp of Life, and struck on all the chords with might. 
Struck the Chord of SELF, that, trembling, passed in music 
out of sight." 

That the spirit of Damon and Pythias, that the wider, deeper, 
world-wide, humanity-absorbing spirit of the Nazarene had mel- 
lowed the hearts of Americans, has not been known heretofore. 
The fact is the more wonderful, yes seemingly miraculous, because 
this Republic in which "all men are created equal" was seething 
v/ith internecine strife and almost destroyed by a war, when this 
history was made. 

^klodestv. in the form of a sublime manifestation of family 
pride, impelled the brother and induced the immediate descendants 
to reticence. Thus it occurred that this history, so long sub- 
i:ierged, might have been lost to the world, but for an unexpected 
circumstance. The divine facts were modestly mingling with 
the Lares and Penates of the family. Known they were, it is true, 
to a small circle of friends and worshipful neighbors. 

Thrilling as the stor>^ is, it is soul-inspiring because it is true. 
It is ennobling for mankind. Disposed as we are to dofif our caps 
to gallantry and to chivalry, we do not need to go back to "the 
days of old when knights were bold, and barons held their sway." 

124 



The knight errantry of our own time and of our own people 
challenges admiration and devoted recognition. 

In days long past that now seem almost as a dream, while 
reading the dry hut valuahle pages of the so-called Rebellion 
Record, an investigating individual in the Library of Congress at 
Washington was surprised to find therein the words "held as a 
hostage;"' and to observe those words to have been used con- 
cerning one of the soldiers prominent in that vast conflict. 

Subsequently, the tendency to inquiry by the investigator led 
him to the individuals chiefly concerned in the incident, and from 
them information of incalculable historic value was obtained. 
But in order that the startling facts belonging to history might 
l:e given their proper places, it became necessary to dig out from 
their submerged places the evidentiary facts. The ultimate result 
has been the historically valuable incidents which compel recogni- 
tion as the long sought, everlasting Oeat American vStorw 

Those words "held as a hostage" aroused lawyer-like interest, 
a desire to know for whom and for what any soldier had been 
thus held in this country of ours. Diligent search next disclosed 
the following statement made by Congressman Elisha E. Mere- 
(lith of Virginia, who said : 

"In the terrible fight at Brandy Station, June 10, 1863, Rooney 
Lee was most severely wounded, and was taken to the residence 
of General W. C. Wickham, a relative of his wife, where he was 
made prisoner by a raiding party (sent for the purpose) and car- 
ried ofl", at great sufi:'ering, to Fortress Monroe. From the latter 
l^lace he was conveyed to Fort Lafayette, where he was treated 
with great severitv, being held, with Captain R. H. Taylor. 
UNDER SENTENCE OF DEATH, as hostages for two Fed- 
eral officers who were prisoners in Richmond, whom it was thought 
would be executed for some retaliatory measure. Yet, almost 
his first act, on reaching Richmond, was to go to Libby Prison 
and visit the two Federal officers for whom he had been held as 
hostage." 

Nothing in the history of warfare amongst men of modern 
times could have been more brutal. General Burnside (as exten- 
sive reading reveals) had executed two alleged Confederate spies 
in East Tennessee. In retaliation the authorities at Richmond had 
selected, by lot, two Federal officers for similar execution. Then 
the authorities at Washington had selected General W. H. F. Lee 
("Rooney") and a Confederate Captain Taylor for hanging, in 
further retaliation. 

Nothing could have been more heart-l)reaking to General Robert 
E. Lee than to have had death impending thus over his second son, 
and at a time when the young man was desperately wounded and 
5;ufifering from that wound. Moreover, those tragedies of the 

T2r, 



war were being enacted in the mind and heart of General Robert 
E. Lee while he was planning and directing the Gettysburg cam- 
paign. Surely no persons then living could have had a better com- 
prehension and appreciation of General Sherman's definition of 
war than the father of the wounded man, General Robert E. Lee ; 
than the brother, George W. Custis Lee, the Damon of the tragedy, 
who offered his life for the life of his wounded brother; nor than 
the suft'ering prisoner, "Rooney" Lee, wounded and under sen- 
tence of death while his loved ones were ill, nigh unto death, 
and dying. 

That this submerged history might be authentically written, 
and made a matter of accessible record now and for all time, the 
ofiicial Record was searched carefully. It was there found that 
the long-time famous orator and statesman, Senator John War- 
wick Daniel of Virginia, himself crippled for life in battle for 
ihe Confederacy, had said, on the floor of the United States 
Senate : 

"W. H. F. Lee raised a company of cavalry at the beginning 
of the war, and he surrendered as a Major General at Appomatox. 
He fought his way to that rank. He suffered all of war's vicissi- 
tudes save death. He was wounded. He was twice a prisoner. 
He was held as a hostage, in solitary confijicment^ zvith death 
impending. Amongst his first acts, when he emerged from prison, 
was to visit and shake hands with and congratulate the Federal 
officers for whom he had been held as a hostage." 

But how did he escape death? Why was he not executed? 
These pertinent and all-important questions naturally arose, de- 
manded and required an answer, explanatory and complete. 

In a public address delivered by Congressman Joseph E. Wash- 
ington of Tennessee we see the first glimmer of light. Mr. Wash- 
ington said : 

"The saddest chapter in his life was when — a prisoner of war 
at Fort Monroe, lying dangerously wounded, and zvitJi a retaliatory 
death sentence suspended over his head, and in the hourly expecta- 
tion of execution — he heard of the fatal illness of his wife and 
tv/o children, but a few miles away. Earnestly his friends begged 
that he might be allowed to go and say a last farewell to them. 

"A devoted brother came, like Damon of old, and OFFERED 
HIMSELF, TO DIE IN ROONEY'S PLACE." 

"War, inexorable war, always stern and cruel, could not accept 
the substituted sacrifice ; and, while the sick and wounded soldier, 
under sentence of death, and himself almost dying, lay in the 
dungeon of the fort, his wife and children passed over 'to rest 
under the trees,' and wait for his coming." 

Physical torture and mental torment, weeks of apprehension 
and months of anguish, left their scars on heart and brain. They 

126 



wore away the strength and viriHty of the giant stature. Those 
indescribable horrors of war ultimately caused the premature 
death of the well loved and greatly esteemed "Rooney" Lee. 

His son, answering" an inquiry, has written to the historian of 
that epoch, saying : 

"As to how General W. 11. F. Lee got the nickname of 'Rooney' 
presents another dilftculty. There is nothing harder to get than 
the truth. I can't recall my father e\er telling me how he came 
by the name. But, it is a tradition of my childhood, from my 
earliest recollection, that there was an Irish servant employed by 
General R. E. Lee — possibly as a groom or in some other capacity 
• — by the name of Patrick O'Rooney, whom, as a small 'boy, Gen- 
eral W. H. F. Lee resembled. And, as General R. E. Lcc was 
very fond of nicknames, having one for every child, and to dis- 
tinguish \V. H. Fitzhugh, from his cousin. Fitzhugh Lee, who was 
a few years his senior, my grand-father called him 'Rooney.' 
which name stuck to him to the day he died. 

"I related practically the above to my uncle, General G. W. C. 
Lee, in the sick room where he was fiat on his back for fourteen 
months. He was then quite nervous from his long illness, from 
which he never recovered. He said, with a good deal of impa- 
tience, that that was not true ; that the name was gotten from the 
hero of some book, popular at the time. He named the character 
and the book, a novel, I think, but unfortunately I have forgotten 
both. This much is to be said : General G. W. C. Lee never took 
any stack in accepted legends of history. He generally had a con- 
trary version. So, realizing that fact, I am very much at sea in 
the matter. Either derivation is possible. Yours very sincerelv. 

"R. E. Lee." ' 

Diligently and carefully seeking further information concerning 
this remarkable family history- submerged history of a family 
whose individuals belong to America and to Americans — discovery 
was made of an address delivered in the House of Representatives 
at Wasliington, under the dome of the Capitol, by the some time 
famous Congressman George D. Wise of Virginia, who said: 

"Li this engagement the brave Georgian, General Pierce M. B. 
Yovmg, formerly a Member of this House, by a splendid charge 
with sa'bers, without pistol or carbine, repulsed a dangerous and 
gallant assault on the rear, while General W. H. F. Lee, with equal 
courage and dash, protected the left of the Confederate position. 

"In this encounter General Lee received a severe wound which 
necessitated his retirement from the field. He was carried to 
Hickory Hill, in Hanover County, to the home of General Wick- 
ham, a near relative of his wife, and here he was captured and 
placed in solitary confinement at Fortress Monroe, as a hostage 
for certain officers of the Ignited States, being held under sentence 

127 



of death in Libby Prison, in retaliation for the execution of cer- 
tain Confederate ofTficers in the West. 

"General Custis Lee, being then a young, unmarried man, and 
on the staff of the Conferedate President, met, under a special 
flag of truce, representatives of the Government at Washington, 
and begged to he permitted to take the place of General W. H. F. 
Lee, giving as his reason for the proposed exchange his desire to 
save from punishment the innocent wife and children of his 
wounded brother. The offer was declined, and he was told that 
the burdens of war must fall where chance or fortune placed them. 

"In this incident li'c have a beautiful and touching illustration 
of the strength and zvarmth of brotherly love, and of the knightly 
l)earing of the Lees of \'irginia. 

"While thus detained as a prisoner of war, racked with physi- 
cal sufferings, and those mental tortures which a sensitive man 
must feel, under such circumstances, there came tidings of the 
death of his loved wife, and two children." 

They were dying of grief and apprehension. They were vic- 
tims of the merciless madness of war. It was to save the life of 
his brother, and also to prolong the lives of his loved one, that 
( ieorge Washington Custis Lee, as Congressman Washington 
stated the case, "a devoted brother, came like Damon of old, and 
OFFERED HIMSELF TO DIE IN ROONEY'S PLACE." 

Interested — yes, thrilled with admiration, and with racial pride 
in such American valor and soldierly glory — the historian sought 
further evidence. That other Americans might know this won- 
derful story of the greater than Damon and Pythias in America, 
the investigator sought and examined all means of information 
available in the limitless Lil)rary of Congress ; reading and copying- 
letters written at the time, and orders olffcially issued concerning 
the case. This has been deemed of unusual importance, so that 
there may be no dou'bt in the future concerning this tragedy of 
civil war. this true story of human interest: this evidentiary fact 
of the truth that "Greater love hath no» man, than this !" 

I'he battle of Brandy Station was fought on June 10, 18G3. On 
the following day. under date of June 11, 186.3. General Robert 
F.. Lee, in his tent at Confederate headquarters, wrote to his wife 
as follows : 

"When I last wrote I did not suppose that Fitzhugh would so 
soon be sent to the rear, disabled. Yet. I hope that it will be Init 
for a short time. I saw him on the night after the battle. Indeed, 
/ met him on tlie field as they were bringing him from the front. 
He is young and healthy, and I trust will soon be up again. He 
seemed to be more concerned about his brave men and oflficers 
who had fallen in the battle than about himself." 

128 



Under the same date, in his tent. General Robert E. Lee wrote 
to the wife of his wounded son, saying: "I am so grieved, my 
dear daughter, at sending Fitzhugh to you, wounded. But I am 
so grateful tliat his wound is of a character to give us full hope 
of his recovery. With his youth and strength to aid him, and 
your tender care to nurse him, I trust that he will soon be well 
again. I shall look to you to cure him very soon and send him 
back to me." 

Under date of June 13, 1863, General J. E. B. Stuart, Com- 
mander of the Cavalry Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, 
officially reported: "Brigadier General W. H. F. Lee's brigade 
was handled in a handsome and satisfactory manner by that gal- 
lant officer, who received a severe wound through the leg in one 
of the last brilliant charges of his command, on the heights." 

Major IF B. McClellan, Chief of Stafif to General Stuart, un- 
der the same date, reports : "When the Ninth Virginia first 
charged up the hill. General W. H. F. Lee was on its left flank, 
encouraging the men of his old regiment. Just before he reached 
the crest of the hill he was severelv wounded and carried from 
the field." 

Colonel John R. Chambless reported to General Stuart : " .Ibont 
4:30 p. in., General W. H. F. Lee was wounded, and I assumed 
co,mmand." 

"Headquarters. 7th Army Corps, White House, 

June 28, 18(13. 

"(jeneral Halleck, Washington: Cieneral W. H. F. Lee was 
found at his house, not recovered from his wound, but he was 
placed in an easy carriage and brought in. I had him examined 
by my Medical Director, and on his report have directed him 
to be sent to Chesapeake Hospital. Colonel Spear ( 11th Penn- 
sylvania Cavalry) was satisfied that he could be brought in with- 
out danger or inconvenience to him, and my Medical Director 
thinks that he will not be injured by the movement, flc had a 
fic.s'h wound in the thigh, the ball having gone entirely through it. 

"John A. Dix." 

Under date of Fcjrtress Monroe, July 1, 18()3, Lieutenant- 
Colonel Wm. H. Ludlow reported: "Brigadier General W. H. F. 
Lee is wounded and in hospital here, on the certificate of the medi- 
cal director that he required hospital treatment. General Lee 
has given his parole to confine himself to the hospital and to make 
no attempt to escape. As soon as he can be moved, he will be sent 
to Fort Delaware, as we have no place of confinement hen'. His 
retention settles the question of hanging our officers." 

12!) 



Writing from "Headquarters, Department of Virginia, July 12, 
1863," Lieutenant-Colonel Ludlow addressed Colonel J. C. Kel- 
ton, A. A. G., as follows : "I am informed that Captain H. W. 
Sawyer, First New Jersey Cavalry, and Captain John M. Flinn, 
Fifty-first Regiment, Indiana Volunteers, have been selected by 
lot for execution, in retaliation for the execution of Captains Cor- 
bin and McGraw, as spies, by order of General Burnside. / re- 
spectfully and earnestly recommend that tzuo Confederate officers, 
now in our hands, be iiiniiediatcly selected for execution, in re- 
taliation for the threatened execution of Sawyer and Flynn." 

The reply to the above recommendation was a telegram, follow- 
ing: 

"Washington, July 15, 1863. 

"Col. Ludlow: The President directs that you IMMEDI- 
ATELY PLACE GENERAL W. H. F. LEE. and anc^ther officer 
selected by you, not under the rank of Captain, prisoners of war, 
IN CLOSE CONFINEMENT, and that you notify the Confed- 
erate agent for exchange of prisoners of war that if Captain H. 
W. Sawyer, First New Jersey Cavalry, and Captain John M. 
Flinn, Fifty-first Indiana Volunteers, or any other officers or men 
in the service of the United States, not guilty of any crime pun- 
ishable with death by the laws of war, shall be executed by the 
enemy, the afore-mentioned prisoners SHALL BE IMMEDI- 
ATELY HUNG, in retaliation. 

"It is also directed that immediately upon receiving official or 
other authentic information of the execution of Captain Sawyer 
and Captain Flinn, YOU WILL PROCEED TO HANG GEN- 
ERAL LEE, and the other rebel officer designated. 

"H. W. Halleck, Chief of Staff." 

Under date Ojf December 15, 1863. Major General John A. Dix 
reported to General Halleck, at Washington : "General Fitz- 
hugh Lee (W. H. F.), son of the rebel general-in-chief. is now 
in confinement, at Fort Lafayette, as hostage. 

After the conclusion of the Gettysburg campaign, when he knew 
that the life of his son was in constant danger, General Robert E. 
Lee wrote a kindly and encouraging letter to the wife of his son, 
under date of July 26, 1863. thus : 

"I am glad, my darling daughter, that you accompanied your 
mother. I hope that the water and the mountain air will invig- 
orate you. and make you well. You must not be sick while Fitz- 
hugh is away, or he will be the more restless in his separation. 
Get strong and healthy by his return, that he may the more rejoice 
at sight of vou. I can appreciate your distress at Fitzhugh's situ- 
ation. I deeplv sympathize with it. In the lone hours of the 
night I GROAN IN SORROW at his captivity and separation 

130 



from you. His wound, I understand, has not been injured by 
his removal, but is doing well. Nothing could do him more harm 
than to. learn that you are sick and sad." 

Thus, the endangered captive was kept in ignorance of the fail- 
ing health of his wife, and the invalid wife was taken to the moun- 
tains of Virginia, not alone for the benefit of her health, but that 
she might be far removed from all sources of news or informa- 
tion concerning the war ; for the death o/ her husband, by hang- 
ing, was almost a certainty to be. 

Nevertheless, the news of his transfer to the New York Nar- 
rows, and solitary confinement at Fort Lafayette, did reach her, 
and it hastened her death. The failure of her vitality, and the 
loss of her maternal care resulted also in the death of her two 
little ones. In the following March of 1864, when "Rooney" was 
finally exchanged and able to return to his home in Virginia, that 
home was empty, desolate, the historic residence destroyed, his 
acres devasted, his wife and children gone, forever. 

To the returned soldier son, hopeless and in dire distress. Gen- 
eral Robert E. Lee, sitting on a camp stool in his tent at night, 
wrote: "Camp, Orange County, April 24, 1S64. T received last 
night, my dear son, your letter of the 22nd. God knows how I 
loved your dear, dear wife, how sweet her memory is to me, and 
how I mourn her loss. My grief could not be greater if you had 
been taken from me. You were both equally dear to me. May 
God. in His mercy, enable us to join her in eternal praise of our 
Lord and Saviour. My whole trust is in God ; and I am ready for 
whatever Lie may ordain." 

In letters written at the time, and lost in the fin'il upheaval, the 
Confederate military chieftain often expressed his thanks to God 
for having spared the life of his son: so that his grief over the 
loss of his dearly beloved daughter-in-law and the grand-children 
was partlv assuaged bv his gratitude to Heaven, that, in the midst 
of war, and out of the jaws of death, his son "Rooney" had been 
spared to him. 

George Washington Custis Lee, even in childhood, was im- 
bued with an afl:'ectionate. careful, self-constituted guardianship 
for his "little brother." That sense of afifectionate supervision 
developed with the passing of the days and the years. Thus, when 
the life of "Rooney" was in danger, and at a time when their 
venerated father was overshadowed with years and grave re- 
sponsibilities, the elder brother did not hesitate, but went forward 
courageously in the performance of that which seemed to him to 
be his plain duty: to offer his life that his brother might live. 

Nowhere has there ever been demonstrated better evidence of 
the truth of the saying that "the bravest are the tenderest ; the 
loving are the daring." 

1.31 



Son of a soldier, scion of soldiers and statesmen, the boyhood 
of Custis Lee was shaded, if not shadowed, by the premature 
manhood which dawned upon his mind as soon as he was suf- 
ficiently mature to realize that he, bore the name of a family of 
distinction ; that southern chivalry confidently expected him to 
bear well and with honor the name of Lee; and to that responsi- 
bility had been added, at his christening, the duty and distinctic^i 
of bearing in purity the name of that great American whom an- 
other Lee had declared to 'be "first in war, first in peace, and first 
in the hearts of his countrymen." 

This man of mighty will and courtly courage quite naturally 
sought the life of "the tented field.'" He became a student of 
military aft'airs. Born at the military post of Fortress Monroe, 
September IG, 1832, he lived in the army until he was 18 years 
of age, and then entered the Academy. When he was graduated 
in 185-1, lie was at the head of liis class, and was nearing his 
twenty-secoind birthday. 

The young lieutenant was immediately given charge of the most 
important engineering work of the War Department — first in 
Florida, and then in California. Because of his superior abilities 
and acquirements he was ordered to duty in Washington, and he 
was well on the way to the position of Chief of Engineers, when 
the long lowering clouds burst and broke over this Republic, in 
that whirlwind, hurricane-storm of civil war. 

The doctrine of "State sovereignty" (too commonly and care- 
lessly spoken of as "States rights") was taught at West Point. 
There, as a Cadet, Robert E. Lee learned the doctrine of the 
superior individual sovereignty of each State in the Confederacy 
known as the United States. And there the hero son, Custis Lee, 
also learned and believed in that doctrine. Quite naturally, fol- 
lowing the line of those undisputed instructions, and also follow- 
ing the example of his soldier-father, for whom he entertained an 
almost idolatrous affection, George Washington Custis Lee ful- 
filled his plain duty by following the sovereign State of Virginia 
into that confederacy of sovereignties, which was established in 
the year 1861. 

His younger brother had always aspired to enter upon a career 
as a soldier. But the necessary political influence to secure his 
designation to West Point was not within the reach of his father; 
and so the younger son, "Rooney," was sent to Harvard College 
in 1854; the year of the graduation of Custis from West Point. 

His standing there was creditable, and he took front rank in 
his classes. His name and lineage carried him into the best of 
Bostonian society. Physically favored by nature, he was soon 
one of the leaders in collegiate athletic affairs. But, with all of 
the allurements and environments which should produce content- 

132 



nient and happiness, the miHtary bias of his mind predominated. 
He longed for hfe in the army, in the field where his father had 
achieved distinction and where his brother was forging to the 
front of leadership. And Custis secured a commission for him. 

But in one particular matter Custis so loved his brother that 
"Rooney" never knew, nor even suspected that the very heart of 
Custis was made to bleed for his happiness. 

"Greater love than tliis hath no man," that he will alter the 
whole course of his life for another; and Custis did that for his 
so well-beloved younger brother. Therein, indeed, lies concealed 
a part of his devotion in the war-time episode. 

Custis Lee, the true hero born and bred, the Damon of this nar- 
ration of real life, this epitome of facts of human interest, rc- 
uiained a bachelor during the remainder of his long life of more 
than eighty years. Finally, George Washington Custis Lee, over- 
powered by the weight of years, laid down to rest at Ravens worth, 
Mrginia, and for more than a year and a half was a helpless in- 
valid, tenderly cared for by the children of his beloved little 
brother, "Rooney," for whom "like Damon of old, HE OF- 
FERED HIMSELF, TO DIE IN ROONEY'S PLACE." 

And there, full of years and of honor, comprehended, appre- 
ciated and venerated by all of the people of the great State which 
he had so well served ; and almost worshipped by the children 
of the deceased brother, "Rooney," he was gathered unto his 
fathers on February 18, 1913; and his monument has not been 
erected. It should not be. imtil all of the people of this great 
nation shall have learned the story of his Christ-like life. 

^^1len Custis Lee resigned from the old army, he proceeded to 
Richmond and there tendered his services to the President of the 
Confederacy. And he. Jefferson Davis, being a West Point man, 
J. veteran of the AVar with Mexico, and well acquainted with mili- 
tary men and military afifairs, immediately designated Custis Lee 
for the supervision of the most important work then in hand ; 
the defense of Richmond. 

It was he who located, designed, and superintended the con- 
struction of the fortifications of all of the approaches to Rich- 
mond. So well was that work done that those defenses were ab- 
solutely impregnable. 

President Davis required Custis Lee to remain in Richmond 
as Aide-de-camp to the President, and in that capacity he was 
the principal military adviser of the President, notably of daily 
service invaluable at the time. So highly was he esteemed that, 
during the year 1864. when the Confederacy was gradually 
crumbling, it was suggested thatthe loss of the services of Gen- 
eral Robert E. Lee, l)y wounding, disease, or death might complete 

133 



the accumulating- disasters, and President Davis replied in sub- 
stantially these words : 

"Great as would be our loss, it would not be wholly irreparable, 
for I should immediately designate Custis Lee for the chief com- 
mand. He is thoroughly competent." 

When the curtain of time had fallen upon the last scene of the 
last act of the tremendous tragedy of Civil War in this country. 
Custis Lee became Professor of Civil and Military Engineering 
at the Virginia Military Institute: and he made of it what it is 
today, a Military Academy, in discipline and curriculum, the 
■equal of the Academy at West Point. 

In the year 1871 he succeeded his famous father, then recently 
deceased, as President of Washington and Lee University ; and 
he was President Emeritus of that educational institution when 
he reached the end of the journey of life and passed through the 
l)early gates of that beautiful city of many mansions, concerning 
which "the half has never been told." 

Concerning the public utterances of statesmen which have 
been quoted, it must be comprehended that Custis Lee was living 
at the time. He uttered no word of protest when the story was 
told that "a devoted brother came, like Damon of old, voluntarily 
to offer his life for his brother." 

He was then actively performing the duties of President of 
Washington and l^ee University; and was one of the foremost 
men of Virginia. But while he could deprecate the narration of 
the story, he could not forbid it. No eulogy could ever be pro- 
nounced over his bier, without the telling of the story of the 
sentence, of death, that in a certain contingency "YOU SHALL 
IMMEDL^TELY HANG GENERAL LEE." 

It is known to the writer, that his long time personal friend 
Senator Daniel of Virginia, his hearty friend Congressman Jo- 
seph E. Washington of Tennessee, and his acquaintance Con- 
gressman George D. Wise of Virginia, the gentlemen who nar- 
rated the story of these events in the Senate and in the House 
of Representatives of the American Congress, were valued friends 
of and welcome visitors to George Washington Custis Lee, at his 
h.ome. 

In narrating his deed of matchless human devotion to his be- 
loved brother, those eminent gentlemen knew whereof they spoke. 
Not one of them would have told the story without the consent of 
Custis Lee, however reluctantly it might have been given. 

That the story should not have newspaper exploitation was 
another matter. It has been held as a sacred part of the history 
of a family of southern gentlemen and southern gentle women. 
Custis Lee, the born soldier, reticent and dignified, forbade pub- 
licity. Consequently, so long as he lived and continued to forbid, 

1 34 



it was impossible to icll lo our people the Irue story of his in- 
coinparahle career. 

His life was spared full fifty years after that wonderful event : 
and during all of those years Custis Lee dwelt in comparative 
obscurity, deprecating every allusion to his deed of marvelous 
self-sacrifice. It was in deference to his wishes, most emphati- 
cally expressed, that the sons of his brother, and all other near 
relatives, refrained from seeking or aiding ptiblicity of his won- 
derfully affectionate deed of nature's noblest nobility. There- 
fore, now, for the first time, withotit ofTi'ense to any one and with- 
out repression from any direction, it is possible to publish this 
story of a life of marvelous merit, matchless self-eftacement, 
dignified heroism, and brotherly devotion, unexampled. 

George Washington Custis Lee. in the fulness of time, sleejjs 
the dreamless sleep of divine rest, in the windowless Palace of 
Peace; for "God giveth his beloved sleei)."" 

(^reorge Washington Custis L^ee has joined with "Rooney" and 
all of that "cloud of witnesses" of htiman affairs; has entered 
upon that condition wliicli lexels all distinetions, and lays the 
shepherd's crook l)eside the sceptre. And thus, "after manv 
days," we nia\ all know the inspirational stnrv of this matchless 
fiower of Knighthocxl in America. 



MM 



ALL ABOUT ARLINGTON 
AND THE LEES 

On l''anie's Eternal Camping Ground 
Their silent tents are spread, 

And Glory guards, with solemn round 
Tlie bivouac of the dead. 



ARLINGTON'S STORY, DRAMA, TRAGEDY, AND 

HISTORY 

Well nigh a quarter of a million Americans of all ages, from 
infants in arms to the trembling and dying veterans of the Civil 
War, visit the national cemetery at Arlington every year on 
Memorial Day ; that one day of every year when throughout this 
entire republic the thoughts of the people are directed to the 
sacrifices which have been made by the youth of the land in order 
that "this government of the people, by the people and for the 
people shall not fade from the earth." 

One of the grandest and most glorious truths set forth in the 
Book of Books, and one of the many which are not known to every 
one as well as they should be known, is in these words : "It is bet- 
ter to go into the house of mourning than into the house of mirth, 
for the heart is made better thereby." And so, on every Memo- 
rial Day the hearts of all of our people are made better by this 
national association in paying universal tribute to the loved and 
the lost. 

Every newspaper in the land publishes an account of the pro- 
ceedings at Arlington; and the larger papers print the addresses 
of the President, and of the others who speak on that occasion 
in the amphitheatre on the spot which was historic long before 
the fatal misunderstandings which separated our people into war- 
ring factions for a time : the famous home of the grand-son of 
Martha Washington, the wonderful man who was worthy of his 
grand-mother, and also worthy of the guardian who adopted him. 
who loved him and directed his life into lines of patriotic en- 
leavor always. To 

137 



BEGIN AT THE BEGTNNINCx 

we must kno\v that these magnificent hills bordering the Potomac 
river and overlooking the national capital city, were originally the 
most valued and favorite hunting grounds of the Powtowmack 
tribes of the South, and also of the vSusquehannas of the North. 
Upon old Observatory Hill in Washington where the Naval Ob- 
servatory was located for well nigh a century, early settlers dug 
out of the ground the bones of the Indians of those tribes, their 
weapons of war alongside of them ; mute but unquestionable 
evidences of a tremendous l^attle between the North and the 
South in the remote past. And so, when Arlington was selected 
as the site of the National Cemetery the white men were making 
their "bivouac of the dead" on what had been to the Indians 
"fame's eternal camping ground." 

Hitherto nobody seems to have taken the time, and the time- 
consuming trouble, to give to our people the history of this long- 
time famous locality, and so we may as well begin with the 

TITLE OF ARLINGTON 

including the realty title and the titular name which is nationally 
associated with the place. The deep laid plans and ultimate pur- 
poses of the white men were not revealed for well nigh three 
hundred years after John Smith and the other adventurers and 
free hooters established their settlements on Jamestown Island 
and along the eastern coasts of the new world. Not only in 
Mexico but at every point the surprised and startled natives 
looked upon every white man as "a fair god," worthy of respect- 
ful kindness and even of worship. That the original inhabitants 
were to be deprived of their lands, driven towards the setting sun, 
and practically annihilated could not have been foretold nor even 
imagined by the most intelligent of those copper colored people. 
It was not until the Jamestown Exposition, in 1907, that the open 
and plain declaration was made by the distinguished and able 
Senator John Tyler Morgan of Alabama : "This is the white 
man's continent, and our government is a white man's govern- 
ment." 

In the books of Eternal Justice the realty title to Arlington 
Heights, as well as to every acre, every foot, every inch and every 
blade of grass, all and in all belonged and belongs to the original 
mhabitants, their heirs and assigns, absolutely in fee simple. Their 
titles to their homes were given to them lavishly and lovingly by 
the same Manitou that gave to them their copper color and. 
although they did not have castles, nor palaces, nor fences, nor 
surveyors to mark their metes and bounds, like the first followers 
of the Man of Galilee, "they had all things in common." 

I3S 



Ill that sense they were the children and the disciples of the 
Nazarene, and the white-skinned marauders and murderers were 
heathen; more benighted than the so-called heathen by "India's 
coral strand." 

Avariciously grasping the proprietorship the white-skinned 
savages from some unknown lands came and took possession of 
every parcel of land which they desired and parceled it out among 
tliemselves, without even saying inquiringly or courteously "by 
your leave." 

Thus it was that Governor William Berkeley of Virginia gave 
an estate of six thousand acres (6,000) to Robert Howsen on 
October 21. 1G()9 ; tliis splendid domain being thus presented as 
a reward for some jmblic service, the nature of which is not a 
matter of permanent record. According to the archives of that 
date the gift estate was located "along the Potomack River, south 
• )f the lower rapids, and westward, as may be surveyed." 

And so by the ipse dixit and the autocratic wave of the white 
man's hand Robert Howsen, according to the white man's laws, 
became the ]:)roprietor of all that is now Arlington National Ceme- 
tery, the City of Alexandria, and the Mount Vernon sacred shrine 
where lie the bodies of George Washington and Martha, his wife, 
near the mansion which was their home ; for they were lovely and 
pleasant in their lives, and "in their deaths they were not divided." 

Robert Howsen regarded that regal estate as of little immediate 
value, as you must realize when we find the record showing that 
the entire estate was sold to John Alexander for six hogsheads of 
tobacco. Maybe that was a good price too, because in those days 
die people of Europe were learning to smoke tobacco. The craze 
for the enjoyable weed of the New World continued to spread, 
and the demand for tobacco soon made that product the equal to 
and the equivalent of legal tender coin in all business transactions 
throughout the colonies and all of the Western Hemisphere. 

On Christmas Day, 1078, at the conclusion of a holiday cele- 
bration, which had been a long-continued session of feasting and 
drinking, Gerald Alexander conveyed eleven hmidred (1,100) 
acres of that original Howsen estate to John Parke Custis. the 
most opulent merchant prince in America, a man whose cheque 
for eleven hundred pounds of the currency of Virginia was worth 
its face value, and eleven hundred (1,100) pounds of the colonial 
currency was fullv equal to eleven hundred potmds sterling. 

Only a man of great wealth could do business on so large a 
scale in those days. .And. you will note how the value of the 
property had increased in a very few years. It was on a Christ- 
mas Day that the title of one white man was transferred to 
another white man. and made a matter of record, so that John 
Parke Custis became the owner of the tract since known as 

I3n 



Arlington, and it was continued in the property wealth of the 
Custis family for another hundred years, the last male heir having 
been George Washington Parke Custis, the grand-son that George 
Washington loved and tutored ; and to his daughter, Mary Ann 
Randolph Custis the great and grand estate was bequeathed. She 
was the last Custis to own the estate ; and when it was recorded in 
her name she was the wife of Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee, 
of the United States Army, an officer destined to achieve distinc- 
tion in the tented field. 



EARL OF ARLINGTON 

An ancestor, four times removed. John Custis, possessed an 
estate in Northampton County, Virginia, which he named ''Arling- 
ton," in honor of Henry, then Earl of Arlington, to whom, with 
Lord Culpeper, King Charles II made a grant of all of old Vir- 
ginia. Over the grave of John Custis there is a large marble 
sarcophagus on which is inscribed this statement: "He kept a 
bachelor's home at Arlington, on the Eastern Shore of Virginia." 

That sarcophagus would convey the impression that John Custis 
had always been a bachelor ; but he had not. The truth was that 
he had kept "a widower's home," instead of a bachelor's home, 
because he had separated from his wife. Details of their marital 
joys and sorrows are unavailing. John Custis was an exceedingly 
wealthy tobacco merchant in that day and generation, and also an 
extensive dealer in real estate ; and his descendant, Daniel Parke 
Custis was wealthy and prosperous largely because of the wealth 
which he inherited. But he was a good business man also, care- 
fully multiplying all of the wealth that had been his father's, and 
that he was keen enough to peer far into the decades is mani- 
fested by his acquisition of that Howsen estate for cash. 

Williamsburg was the capital city of the Colony of Virginia, 
because Governor William Gooch made that little village his 
dwelling place and home, and there, from time to time, were 
assembled all of the wealth and beauty of that part of the New 
World, particularly in the winter times when the snow and ice 
halted agriculture and all of the business that depended upon the 
tilling of the soil. 

Martha Dandridge was the belle of belles, practically Queen of 
the May all the year 'round ; and of lovers there were manv who 
sought her heart and hand. Put. woman-like, she looked with 
favor on the handsome and care-free young roysterer : and so, 
in June. 1749, Martha Dandridge became the wife of Daniel 
Parke Custis. 

Wedding presents were numerous and from every point of the 
compass, but the most notable wedding present was the since 

140 



famous "White House Farm," on the Pamunkey River, given to 
young Custis by his rich and jjroud father. And there they dwelt 
in prosperity and happiness for a few years only, for in 1757 
Daniel Parke Custis died, leaving to his widow an estate exceeding 
in value one hundred thousand dollars ; and after only eight years 
of married life Martha Dandridge had become a wealthy widow, 
a very wealthy widow, for that was an immense fortune in those 
days. 

Martha Dandridge had Ijeen a popular belle in Williamsburg, 
but Martha Custis, with an abundance of lucre, was the most 
popular lielle in America, and lovers came a-courting almost in 
phalanxes. But the Widow Custis was wise and prudent, and 
patient, awaiting the Prince Charming, because she could be the 
arbiter of her own fate now, the captain of her soul. She had 
two children, and wisely she considered the future of those little 
ones as well as her own future. And within two years her Prince 
Charming came, a young soldier, caparisoned and mounted for 
conquests ; and he conquested the heart of Martha Dandridge com- 
pletely. They were married on January G, 1759, and Martha 
Dandridge Custis was proud of her handsome husband, for he 
Vv-as brilliant, capable and popular as well as handsome, and he had 
acquired fame too, for they called him "the hero of Braddock's 
field." He is better known today by his baptismal name of 
Cieorge Washington. 

No mistake had been made by the mother of little John Parke 
<'^ustis and tiny Martha Parke Custis, for their step-father made 
the <;-year-old boy his companion and he tenderly cared for the 
little girl baby of only '> years : so that it was a very happy family 
that went to live at Mount Vernon, the home on the Potomac 
River, where until this day lie the bodies of Washington and his 
wife. But the first sorrow of the life of Martha W^ashington 
came in 1773, when her daughter. A'lartha Parke Custis, was taken 
to another world, when she was 16 years of age, her mother's 
companion and confidante, a beautiful and glorious creature; and 
^^'ashington mourned with the mother when the summons came. 

When John Parke Custis had passed his twelfth year he became 
tmmanageable. He was neither a loving son nor a dutiful son to 
the mother who had been bereaved ; a wild, careless boy who 
slipped away from the care of his guardian. He was. in truth, 
a bad boy. 

When 18 years of age he was sent to Columbia College, in New 
York, an institution then known as King's College. Unwisely 
supplied with ample means the young fellow devoted his time and 
Ir's talents to society, fine raiment, dogs, steeds, sports, and paid 
little attention to books or to college rules. 

141 



Only three months of college life was enough for John Parke 
Custis, and his collegiate education was finished. He wrote to his 
mother that on Fehruary 4, lTT-1, he had heen married to Eleanor 
Calvert, aged 16 years, at Mount Airy, Maryland. The young 
lady was a descendant of Lord Baltimore. 

Establishing a home at Four-Mile-Run the bridal couple became 
the first resident occupants of the estate which had been acquired 
by John Parke Custis ( the lad's father) ; and that site is now 
just halfway between Washington City and Alexandria, Virginia, 
and only eight miles from Mount Vernon ; so Martha Washington 
had opportunity often to see her wayward son and the child wife 
who dwelt in loyalty and unhappiness with that unworthy young 
man. 

OCCUPIED AND NAMED. 177(i 

When the mansion was completed, and three children were born 
there, the place was named and became known as "Arlington," 
for John Parke Ciistis knew of the estate on the eastern shore 
which John Custis had named for the Earl of Arlington. 

But when the time came for the birth of a fourth child, Eleanor 
Custis visited the home of her birth and childhood, at Mount Airy, 
Maryland, and there was born the boy, George Washington Parke 
Custis ; the boy George Washington loved and nurtured, and pre- 
pared for honorable manhood. .A.nd be it said in letters both 
bold and Ijright so that they may sink into the memories of 
mankind, the paternal work of George Washington was wonder- 
ful and has not been comprehended nor appreciated heretofore. 
For George Washington Parke Custis carried with him imtil the 
end of his long and noble life the lessons that he had learned from 
Washington. There has been no more clean, honorable, and noble 
citizen of this republic than the man whose boyhood was ennobled 
by the directing hand and mind of George Washington. 

The father of George Washington Parke Custis redeemed his 
reckless life of earlier years. He developed into manhood in time 
to participate in the Revolution and' died a hero's death as the 
result of exposure in the last campaign of the struggle for Inde- 
pendence and Liberty, ll would he an incomplete and an unfair 
history that failed to give credit and a ineed of praise to John 
Parke Custic, the soldier who gave his life for his country. 

Immediately after the death of John Parke Custis, his baby 
boy was adopted by the grand and masterful man whom we know 
as "The Father of His Country ;" just as he had adopted the 
wayward boy who had finally given his life for Liberty and Inde- 
pendence. Beyond criticism of mature minds, concerning his 
public works, that same man was above criticism as a guardian 

142 



and educator of the children of his wonderful wife; and this 
grand-son of Martha Washington l)ccame so attached to "grand- 
pa" that Martha Washington almost worshiped her marvelous 
husband. 

What marvelous memories of masterful manhood must have 
been the delight of George Washington Parke Custis in his later 
years; for during the formative years of character, until he was 
18 years of age, the youth, the young man was the constant com- 
panion and helpful aide to the famous soldier-statesman, the fore- 
most man of all the world ; memories that exerted an unconscious 
influence on all of the after years of his noble life. He gave filial 
iidelity, and his mental promise lightened, livened and increased the 
contentment and home happiness of Washington ; and the little 
fellow was the idol of his grand-mother until the close of her life 
in this sphere of intelligence. 

When his grand-mother died George Washington Parke Custis 
mournfully turned away from the home of his l)abyhood. child- 
hood, youth and young manhood, and carefully traversed the 
Arlington estate, which was his unincumbered inheritance, and of 
which he was the sole heir. From every viewpoint the young man 
examined his estate; not only from the topographical conditions 
and architectural considerations. Imt always as the only living 
representative of George Washington and as the only human 
being bearing that honored name. 

Intending to erect for his home a mansion near the national 
capital citv. a residence to which Americans and visitors from 
abroad might come (as they did), he chose the crest of the forest- 
clad "Arlington Heights," and there he made a Hearing so that 
from the portico of the Mansion there should be a complete view 
of the city which would be built on the Maryland side of the 
}'otomac, and a site on which the Mansion would always be easily 
observed by residents of and visitors to the Federal City. 

T^ersonallv he selected the site, personally he supei"vised the 
clearing awav of the enshrouding trees, and personally he made 
the choice of architecture. Then he personally superintended the 
v.-ork of building, from the breaking of the ground and digging 
the foundations, and laying the foundation stones, to the roofing 
and decorations; even to the selection and laying of the flagging 
stones of the magnificent portico. Every brick in the Arlington 
Mansion was moulded and burned on the estate. 

This famous old Mansion has a frontage of 11 feet, including 
the main building and the lower wing on either side. The great 
Greek portico was modeled after the style of the Temple of 
Theseus at Athens. 

The portico is TIO feet wide and 25 feet deep. 

143 



The graceful entablature is uplifted by eight massively im- 
pressive Doric columns. 

The view of the Potomac River for many miles is glorified by 
the hills of Maryland which green-wall the entire District of 
Columbia; hills which seem to be the frames formed and placed 
h\' Nature for a picture no artist can paint. 

Then, when he was 33 years of age, a wonderfully mature and 
dignified man for his years, George Washington Parke Custis was 
married to Mary Lee Fitzhugh, aged 16 years; and she became 
the first mistress of the grandest colonial mansion in this new 
world. 

From the portico of the Arlington Mansion, George Washington 
Parke Custis and his wife witnessed the growth of the Federal 
City, as it was then known. In that mansion they lived and loved 
until the year 1853, when the gentle spirit of the wife was called 
hence, leaving to the bereaved husband an only child, a daughter, 
Mary Ann Randolph Lee, the wife of Colonel Robert E. Lee, 
U. S. A. And so, George Washington Parke Custis was the last 
male owner of the Arlington estate ; the last to have and to hold 
possession of that magnificent property. Very soon after the 
departure of the builder of the mansion the tocsins of war sounded 
over Arlington, and the valley resounded with the echoes of the 
trumpets which called to arms from that broad portico on the 
Virginia eminence. 

Today and for all time from that portico can be witnessed the 
development of the v/onderful Capital City of the Republic; the 
city now rapidly assuming proportions and lines of beauty which 
are making it the Capital of Peace, a Capital city leading the 
world of intelfigence and the divine uplifting of humanitv "for 
the healing of the nations." 

Anticipating the hands of avarice which have made of Mount 
Vernon a show-place with a price of admission, cash in hand, the 
affectionate grand-son of Martha Washington managed secretly 
to carry away from the home of his happy boyhood many memen- 
toes of the life of his highly esteemed, deeply loved and famous 
guardian. 

TENT OF WASHINGTON 

Particularly proud he was of one relic, and he valued it most 
highly, and that was the old, weather-beaten and war-worn "Tent 
of Washington ;" the tent which had been used constantly and 
continually by General George Washington from July, 1775, 
when it was first pitched at Cambridge, until many weeks after 
the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. That canvas 
"Tent of Washington" had been the silent witness of all of the 
greatest events of the War of the Revolution. 

]44 



And so, at the Arliiig^ton Mansion, whenever George Washing- 
ton Parke Custis desired to manifest particnlar regard or to espe- 
cially honor any guests the famous old "Tent of Washington" 
was pitched out upon the lawn for their reception. 

VISIT OF LA FAYETTE 

On October 12, 1824, when General Lafayette was entertained 
by the Federal Government in Washington City, and ceremonies 
in his honor were splendored in the Capitol Building, George 
Washington Parke Custis was there and the "Tent of W'^ash- 
ington" was pitched where now the Rotunda is located under 
the Dome and its Brumidi canopy. And there in that tent Gen- 
eral Lafayette said to Mr. Custis : "I first saw you at Movmt 
Vernon in 178i, thirty years ago, and you were a very little 
gentleman with a feather in his hat, holding fast to one finger 
of the masterful hand of the good George Washington." 

During the last two years of the life of George Washington, 
while the young gentleman was coming into manhood, the home 
at Mount Vernon was the Mecca of America to which all men 
of distinction came, as Lafayette had come in the manner de- 
scribed by him. The greatest entertainer on this continent was 
the distinguished master of Mount Vernon ; and it was this fact, 
comprehended by George W^ashington Parke Custis that largely 
influenced the young man in the location, the preparation and the 
building of the Arlington Mansion, because he knew that the 
direct heirs of his great guardian could not and therefore would 
not entertain becomingly. Therefore Arlington Mansion became 
the Mecca for those who remembered and revered George W'ash- 
ington ; and so he kept open house as long as he lived. 

During his life time, which was the first half of the nineteenth 
century, the favorite picnicing grounds for Alexandria, Union- 
town, Washington, Rockville, and all of the surrounding country, 
were around the famous "Arlington Springs." There the chil- 
dren of the churches, schools, Sunday Schools, and the grown 
folks of the various lodges and civil societies wended their ways. 

"Welcome" was signaled by the beds of flowers, over the 
various gates, and on the genial kindly faces of the gentle man and 
the gentle woman who cheerily greeted all visitors ; and every- 
body knew that the welcome was hearty, heart-felt, and sincere. 

Although the population of the city and of the covmtry was 
very small as compared with modern conditions, yet upwards 
of 20,000 people visited xA.rlington during the season of 185G ; 
and the picnicing parties continued to increase in numbers an- 
nually until 186 L when the clouds of civil strife began to ob- 
scure and efface all pleasures, and the funeral processions began 

145 



to take the ])laces of the parades, picnics and fraternal celebra- 
tions of the prosperous people. 

Previous to the year 1857 thousands of little children were en- 
tertained by a distinguished-looking elderly gentleman who came 
down the pathway from the mansion, dressed as in colonial days, 
and carried with him a violin on which he played the popular 
tunes for the little ones ; and that cheerful entertainer was the 
adopted son of George Washington the master of Arlington ; 
and he manifestly enjoyed extending even to the children the 
same spirit of Virginia hospitality which had been displayed so 
freely, in his way, by the great man Washington, whose name 
was so W'orthily borne by that gentle Virginia gentleman of the 
olden style : and at a time when Virginia hospitality was prover- 
l)ial almost all around the world. 

Fortunately for that noble man, George W^ashington Parke 
Custis, he did not live to see the division of his country; did not 
live to see his daughter fleeing from her home ; did not live to 
see his estate confiscated by the Federal Government ; did not 
live to see Arlington Heights gleaming under the sun. nor by the 
moonlight, nor by torchlights, nor by the camp fires "of the 
hundred circling camps" of the vast armies of soldier boys who 
assembled there to march and counter march over the soil of old 
Virginia, to drench its hills and valleys with fratracidal blood. 
His coming to earth was a blessing to his mother and to his 
grand-mother: and his life was a spring of happiness to Wash- 
ington also. But in the year 1857, at Arlington, there were 

ANGELvS HOVERING AROUND. 

to carry home the gentle spirit of the noble man whose life had 
been without reproach, whose character had been clean, whose 
name was honored during the days of his life, and whose name 
should always be honored by all who revere the memory of 
George Washington, in the shadow of whose life and character 
George Washington Parke Custis lived, served and died. No- 
body but himself knew the intensity of his bereavement when 
his good wife passed away. His daughter was with him, it is 
true, but her attentions were absorbed and her affections were 
diluted because of the presence of her husband and the two boys ; 
Custis and "Rooney" Lee. And the master of the place was 
lonely : but not desolate nor repining. 

On the morning of October (i, 1857, the veneralile gentleman 
reluctantly admitted that the severe cold had become an illness, 
and late that Sunday afternoon he retired to his room and to 
bed, saying that a long night's rest would be sufficient to restore 
him to his normal condition of health. Rut on Monday he re- 

146 



niained in his room, although not remaining in bed. On Tuesday 
morning he sent for a plnsician liecause his symptoms indicated 
that pneumonia was the aihuent, and the physician informed him 
tliat the case was serious. On Wednesday evening he sent for 
his pastor, who arrived on the morning of Thursday; and the 
mind of the gentleman, the nohle man, was so clear, that when 
his pastor entered the room, (leorge Washington Parke Custis 
asked him to offer prayer for the dying. 

With the deeply mourning family and the sobbing servants 
gathered aroand him, while the prayer was being off"ered, the 
s])irit of the magnificent specimen of American manhood left the 
time-worn body and "ran up. with joy. the shining way," leaving 
upon the face of the earthly tenement a smile of contentment and 
perfect ])eace. Thus, with the close of the day of Thursday, 
( >ctober lU. bs.ji. was closed the life of the boy and man whom 
(leorge Washington loved, the owner and the builder of Arling- 
ton Mansion, George Washington I'arke Custis. 

Frc^n Washington City and from all of the >urrounding com- 
munities and country homes sincere mourners came to attend the 
funeral services; hundreds of elderly ladies and gentlemen being 
conspicuous as sincere mourners because of their tears and sobs. 
From Washington City to Arlington Mansion and then to the 
grave, the President's Mounted Troop marched, becoming a 
guard of honor ; and there came also the Mount Vernon Guards, 
of Alexandria, X'irginia, the Associated vSurvivors of the War 
of 1812, the Washington Lyight Infantry, and the very many civil 
organizations. Members of the Caljinet of President Buchanan 
and many t)ther high of^cials were there to pay their respects to 
the memory of the gentleman whom all had esteemed and re- 
spected, and whom George Washington had loved as his own. 

About three hundred feet south of the main driveway through 
the Cemetery Grounds there are two graves ; the last resting places 
of the owner and builder of the Arlington Mansion and his wife, 
the first mistress of the manse, who came to it as a bride when 
only sixteen years of age. It is as true of them as though the 
words of Holy W' rit had been intended solely for them, that "they 
were lovely and ])leasant in their lives, and in their deaths they 
were not divided." 

Between these graves and the Mansion are rows of the graves 
of the soldiers of the Republic. The soldier's grave nearest to 
them bears this inscription: "John Kattnor. X. Y., 5274." 

Very brief and plain and clear was the will of George Wash- 
ington Parke Custis, in which he gave "to my dearly beloved and 
only child, Mary Ann Randolph Lee, my Arlington Estate in the 
County of Alexandria, containing 1.100 acres, during the term 
of her natural life." 

147 



On June 30. 1831, in the drawing room of the ArHngton Man- 
sion that dearly beloved and only child, Mary Ann Randolph 
Custis, in the presence of her parents and with their approval, 
was married to Colonel Robert E. Lee, by the Reverend William 
Meade, who afterwards became a Bishop in the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church. 

In his will, the late George Washington Parke Custis also made 
the following provision : 

"On the death of my daughter, Mary Ann Randolph Lee, all 
of the property left to her during the term of her natural life, 
I give and bequeath to my eldest grand-son George Washington 
Custis Lee, to him and to his heirs forever, he, my eldest grand- 
son, taking my name and arms." 

On August 5, 18G1. a new revenue law became operative, a war 
measure to provide fimds for the Federal Government which 
was then engaged in raising and equiping armies for the na- 
tional defense ; and by that Act of Congress, with its amendments, 
a Federal tax of $92.07 was imposed upon the Arlington estate. 

Moreover, under the provisions of that law, nobody could pay 
taxes upon property assessed, except the person against whom and 
in whose name the taxes were entered and charged. 

And furthermore, the taxes were assessed against the sole 
owner of the property, Mary Ann Randolph Lee ; a lady who 
then resided in Richmond, Virginia, and whose husband was a 
major general commanding Virginia soldiers then marshaled 
under another flag than the flag of the United vStates. Under 
such circimistances the sole owner, Mary Ann Randolph Lee, could 
not, and of course did not. appear in person to pav the tax of 
$93.07. 

Consequently, on January 11, 18(3-1, the owner having disre- 
garded the tax during a period of more than two years, the en- 
tire estate was sold at a public auction, after extensive advertis- 
ing. It was struck off to the United States Government for the 
meagre sum of $26,800, and military as well as civil possession 
immediately followed. 

Eleven hundred acres of land, worth today not less than two 
thousand dollars per acre (more than $2,000,000) thus passed 
into the possession of the Government for the paltry sum of $2(5,- 
800 ; and there has been no change in the title from that date to 
this, a period of fifty-eight years. 

WHITHER THOU GOEST 

Imagine, if you can, the tragedy of the Civil War, as to its 
bearing upon only one individual ; although we know that it 
struck deep into all of the homes of this country, north and soutli 
as well. Imagine if you can the heart-throbs and the brain storm 

148 



of Mary Ann Randolph Custis Lee, when the time came for her 
to decide whether she should remain with the estate of her noble 
father, or turn back upon that grand and magnificent heritage and 
cast her lot with her husband ; and, remember, against the flag 
of Washington, the flag of her father. To go with her husband 
meant the abandonment of the Arlington Mansion, her birthplace, 
her childhod home, the home of her mother, and of her father. 

Today, we may realize that her abandonment of the property 
was unwise; but our viewpoint is vastly different. She was the 
wife of Robert E. Lee ; and, to the marriage vows which she 
decided to keep, she added the other wonder words of Scripture : 
"Whither thou goest, 1 will go. Thy people shall be my people, 
and thy God, my God." And so she went with Robert E. Lee. 
and dwelt wuth his people. We know, but she did not know, 
that if she had remained there in possession of her own indi- 
vidual estate, no matter what course her husband might have 
pursued, the property would not and could not have been taken 
from her. 

Does the extreme critic say that she should have remained and 
held the property for her son? The answer is this: the eldest 
son, the heir to follow her, George Washington Custis Lee, was 
with her, and he gave up his title voluntarily, when his mother 
gave up her title. He went with his father, as she went with her 
husband. 

At the Military Academy of the United States, at West Point, 
the Constitution of the United States was taught ; and in the 
teaching the doctrine of "State sovereignty" was emphatically in- 
culcated. 

While a student there Robert E. Lee was taught that doctrine, 
and he believed it thoroughly. Moreover, the son, George Wash- 
ington Custis Lee, was taught the same doctrine at West Point ; 
and Custis Lee, the heir presimiptive, believed in that interpreta- 
tion of the Constitution as it was officially taught at West Point ; 
and thus both father and son. graduates of West Point Military 
Academy, were merely doing as they had been officially taught to 
do, when they followed the fortunes of the sovereign State of 
Virginia and entered the army of the Confederate States of 
America, when A'irginia entered that confederacy. 

After the four years of civil war the State of Virginia was not 
represented in the Congress of the United States until January. 
1870; and then. Senator John W. Johnston of Virginia intro- 
duced in the Senate at Washington on January 22, 1870, a peti- 
tion of one of the citizens of Virginia, Mary Ann Randolph Lee. 
stating that "it cannot be doubted that a serious cloud rests upon 
the title of the Government to the Arlington Estate," and adding: 

"To remove that cloud and quiet the title, the petitioner and 

149 



her son, G. W. C. Lee (he owner of the revision) will execute 
and deliver such necessary releases and conveyances as may he 
adjudged sufficient to sanction and quiet any claim which the Gov- 
ernment may now have, hy making legal and valid title to the 
property, for three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000.00)." 

No action was taken by the Congress concerning that petition. 
and it was not allowed to go onto the calendar for consideration. 

Mary Ann Randolph Lee died in November, 18T3, and the 
claim to the Arlington Estate at once vested in her eldest son. 
George Washington Custis Lee, by revision of the will. 

On April 6, 1874. Senator Johnston presented to the Senate a 
memorial from the claimant, G. \V. C. I.ee, offering to convey to 
the Government his fee simple title "upon the payment of a just 
compensation." 

That proposal also was ignored, and nothing was done to clarify 
the title to the estate until March 3L 1883, when the Congress 
appropriated the sum of $150,000 "for the purchase of the Ar- 
lington Estate." 

Thereupon George Washington Custis Lee executed a deed 
covering title to all of his rights to the property, thereby remov- 
ing the last cloud to the title of the Government to that magnifi- 
cent estate ; an estate which was worth, at that time, not less than 
half a million dollars. 

On April 33, 1861, Col. Robert E. Lee and all of the members 
of his family, departed from Arlington: and, until May 34 of 
that year, nobody dwelt at Arlington but a few of the faithful 
slaves. 

On May 3, 18<)1, Lieutenant General Winrteld Scott, com- 
manding the armies of the United States, ordered (General J. K. 
F. Mansfield to "Seize and fortify Arlington Heights, for the 
defenses of Washington City." 

At two o'clock on the morning of May 34, 18()L troops be- 
gan the inva-'ion of \''irginia, crossing the Long Bridge and the 
Aqueduct Bridge, and those troops occupied the Arlington Estate, 
pitching their tents on tliose heights all the way from Four- 
Mile-run to and including the grounds surrounding the Ar- 
lington Mansion, and overlooking the Capital City opposite 
Georgetown College. 

ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY 

Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs, one of the great 
men of the United States Army who rendered distinguished serv- 
ice during a long and honorable life, without seeking and of course 
without acquiring fame, was the first official who "dipt into the 
future, far as human eye could see," and realized the value of 
the Arlington Estate to the Natit)n as the location for a National 

150 



cemetery. It was he who presented the idea to Secretary Stan- 
ton, and it was because of his tireless insistence that the auction 
sale was ordered, at which sale the (lovernment accpiircd a tax- 
sale title to the estate on January I 1, I8(i4. 

Four months thereafter, on May 13, 18(54, Quartermaster Gen- 
eral Meigs ordered the Inirial at Arlington of about a score of 
Federal soldiers wIkj had died of wounds received in the battles 
of the Wilderness and at Spottsylvania Court House, Virginia. 
They were buried in the terrace which then bordered the garden, 
in tlie rear of the mansion ; and that i^'as tlir bc(/inui>i(/ of Ar- 
lington National Cemetery. 

On June 15. 18()4, Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, issued 
an order setting ajtart two hundred acres of the estate, including 
the mansion, "for a Military Cemetery, to be laid out and en- 
closed for the burial of soldiers dying in the hospitals, in and 
about Washins^ton Citv." 



FIRSn^ DECORATION DAY 

May 30, 18()8, General John A. Logan, the first Commander-in- 
Chief of the newly organized (irand Army of the Republic, pro- 
mulgated an order setting apart that day as Memorial Day 
throughout the entire country, and exhorting the veterans and 
all of the bereaved ones of the land to "decorate the graves of 
the fallen citizen soldiery." And so. May 30 was named both 
Memorial Day and Decoration Day ; the ofificial name of Memo- 
rial Day having been given at a later date, when that day was 
made a national holiday. 

Major General James A. Garfield, of Ohio, then a Member of 
the House of Representatives, delivered the first Memorial Day 
address at Arlington on May 30, 18()8, from a platform, with an 
awning, which was erected on the lawn in front of the Arlington 
Mansion on the very spot where George Washington Parke Cus- 
tis had often pitched the "Tent of Washington," to honor his 
guests. And there, every year afterwards, the exercises of 
Memorial Day were held, until the year 1897, when the Sylvan 
Temple was prepared, and from the forum there President Mc- 
Kinley addressed a large concourse. 

To describe and make mention of all of the monuments and 
improvements since that day would require a volume : a treatise 
more elaborate than this condensation of history. 

More than 40,000 soldiers of the Civil War are buried on the 
Arlington Estate; and, until this day, every aged veteran of the 
Grand Army of the Republic who dies in Washington City, is 
there interred with military honors, although the few surviving 
veterans go to the Cemetery now in automobiles; whereas, until 

151 



ten years ago they were accustomed to march the entire distance 
from ahnost any point in Washington City. 

Twenty years ago, when it was proposed to have buried in Ar- 
Hngton National Cemetery a veteran of the War with Spain, 
the old soldiers protested vigorously, because that place had been 
set apart exclusively for them. But the old boys were finally 
convinced that there is room enough for all ; and so it is customary 
now for the bodies of the Spanish War veterans to be carried 
there also for the last sounding of "taps." 

And today, as the years have gone rolling by, there has been 
buried there with national honors the body of "The Unknown 
Soldier" who died in France and was found on the battlefield ; 
and there are so many others of the American Legion buried 
there, that it is not prophecy to state that the many other unused 
acres will be occupied in the same way, as the corroding canker 
and the gnawing tooth of time increases the number of those 
soldiers who will be obliged to join "the bivouac of the dead." 

Half a century elapsed before the Nation practically and of- 
ficially followed the sage and far-seeing counsel of General Grant, 
who said at the conclusion of the war of 1861-18G5, "Let us have 
Peace." Half a century of time had mellowed the hearts and 
obliterated the hatreds in the memories of the soldiers of the 
Grand Army of the Republic, and a place was set apart for the 
brave American soldier boys who followed Robert E. Lee be- 
neath the famous battle flag known as "The Southern Cross." 

When there was erected, unveiled and dedicated there a monu- 
ment for those soldier boys of "Dixie" this writer was there and 
saw the fulfilment not only of the counsel of General Grant but 
of another brave Union soldier. Major William AIcKinley, who 
had said while in Georgia, that "it is time that we honor the 
memory of the dead soldiers of the South." 

Inasmuch as this country has captured the body, the army, the 
name and the fame of Robert E. Lee; concerning whom Lieu- 
tenant-General Winfield Scott wrote "he is the very best soldier 
I have ever seen in the field;" and inasmuch as this country has 
honored that hero of the War with Mexico with a statute in the 
Capitol ; and inasmuch as his fame as a soldier is a part of the 
history of the Nation; the reader will not object to the predic- 
tion of a Virginian by birth, that some day the National Ceme- 
tery at Arlington will be made the more completely "National," 
by the interment there of the bodies of Robert Edward Lee ; 
his wife, the sole inheritance owner of the estate when she died ; 
and the last Custis-owner, George Washington Custis Lee ; whose 
deed of conveyance gave to the Government a clear title to the 
property. 

152 



Gpon the Lee Monument it should he inscribed that George 
VVashington Custis Lee, a born soldier, was a first honor man 
all of the time when he was a cadet at West Point; that he re- 
ceived not one demerit mark ; that he was graduated at the head 
of his class ; and that, in lS(i4, when General I'J.obert E. Lee was 
seriously ill. President Jefferson Davis, himself a trained soldier 
of West Point and of the Mexican War, said: "In the event of 
the death of General Robert E. Lee, 1 shall at once appoint his 
equal as a soldier, his son, George Washington Custis Lee, as 
the commander of all of the armies of the Confederacy now in 
the field." 

Then, "after these many days" will be com})letely fulfiled the 
nope of the heart of General Grant who said so fervently: 

"Let us have Peace!" 



153 



" OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM 

"An Ode to Anacreon," is of European origin. The words 
and the air were devoted to jollifications and orgies. The "Ode 
to Anacreon" is a drinking song, for drunkards ; human beings of 
a past age. 

Unfortunately, Francis Scott Key wrote his poetic words to 
suit that tune. Hence, the Star Spangled Banner cannot be the 
national anthem of a sane and sober people. 

"Dixie" is the most inspiringly popular air known to our 
people. 

"Dixie" was written in America. 

"Dixie" was produced by the brain of an American citizen ; 
and a native-born citizen, too. 

"Dixie" was written in the State of Ohio. 

"Dixie" was first produced in public in the city of Cincinnati. 

"Dixie," although sent forth on the northern side of the of- 
ficially known border line, "Mason and Dixon's Line" (the line 
between the long-time unfriendly sections) ; was captured by 
the Confederates, adopted and held by them. 

"Dixie" has beccnne sacred to the South-land, although it 
belongs to all of our now, forever, UNITED States. 

When my esteemed friend General Fitzhugh Lee returned from 
the position of Consul-General to Cuba in 1898, he said to me: 
"After the battleship Maine had been destroyed, every day 
from that date until my departure from Havana. I was pointed 
out as 'The Yankee Consul General.' Just think of that! And 
you know that I was an active Confederate anti-Yankee soldier 
for four years. But we are known now as 'Yankees' all over 
the world, and this is now 'Yankee Land.' " 

That's how the writer came to entitle his poetic story of our 
patriotic history, "Yankee Land." 

\Vhi.stle it ! Sing it ! It's YOUR tune. If.. OUR "Dixie." 



155 



YANKEE LAND 

OUR NATIOx\AL ANTHEM 
By Smith D. Fry 

AIR— DIXIE 

Our Anthem tells of Lexington, 
The Revolutionary War brave Yankees won. 
'Twas a thrill from Bunker Hill 

Till the foemen hence were hurled. 
George Washington, in fearless manner. 
On Cambridge raised the Star Spangled banner. 
Now it gleams o'er the streams 

And the ramparts of the world. 

Chorus 

Our battle flags are flying, hooray ! hooray ! 
O'er ocean wave. Freedom to save, 
While Tyranny is dying. 

Hooray, hooray, the Stars and Stripes forever! 

Hooray, hooray, our Yankee Land forever ! 

Revere, Ward, Greene. Gates, Patrick Henry. 

John Hancock, Jefl^erson, our heroes were many ; 
wSoldiers brave, statesmen grave, 

Risked their lives for Yankee Land. 
Our bold Continentals, in their ragged regimentals. 

Left their wives, homes, sweethearts and dearest senti- 
mentals 
Gallant band, heart in hand 

To create this Yankee Land. 

Chorus : Our battle flags, etc. 

At Valley Forge in hvmger and in cold. 

They did shiver. 
Then followed noble George across Delaware River ; 

And they smote the Red Coat, 
'J'o preserve this Yankee Land. 

First in war, first in peace, earth's greatest of men, 
Was first in the hearts of his countrymen 

A leader brave, God gave, 
To cnfrancJiisc Yankee Land. 

Chorus : Our battle flags, etc. 

1 5(> 



From Tennes.-ee mountains and deep t'oggy bottoms, 

With Jackson, they fought behind bales of cotton. 
Every shot hit the spot, 

And they saved their Yankee Land. 
Davy Crockett died in glory at the white Alamo, 

To avenge him, Yankees then conquered Mexico 
Fighting hot, they followed Scott, 

And expanded Yankee Land. 
Chorus: Our battle flags, etc. 

Our Yankee boys' daddies followed Grant and Lee, 
While Sherman raised "war" on his march to the sea. 
Strife raged, battles waged 
In divided Yankee Land. 
Then "Let us have peace," said Grant to Lee. 
"L^nited we are, and ever shall be. 

Keep your sword." Praise the Lord 
For united Yankee Land. 

Chorus: Our battle flags, etc. 

Spanish ships were shattered with each cannon's throb. 
"After breakfast," said Dewey, "we'll finish this job." 
And he did — Dewey did. 

With his fleet from Yankee Land. 
At Santiago, "sailor boys behind the great guns;" 
In Porto Rico soldier boys victories won. 
Sailor boys, soldier boys, 

Conquered peace for Yankee Land. 

Chorus : Our battle flags, etc. 

Then Congress declared to the land of the brave 
"No nation on earth shall the Kaiser enslave ; 
Make them free, free as we. 

All are free in Yankee Land." 

Then victory came both on land and sea 
To the boys vvhose daddies followed Grant and Lee. 
Soldier boys, sailor boys, 

Over there for Yankee Land. 

Chorus : Our battle flags, etc. 

(Copyright, ipi/, by Smith D. fry.) 



157 



Every American Citizen, particularly every boy and every girl 
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FRY'S PATRIOTIC STORY OF THE CAPITOL 
This work disseminates 

THE AMERICAN'S CREED 

By HON. WM. TYLER PAGE 

(Official) 

I BELIEVE in the United States of America as a government of 
the people, by the people, for the people, whose just powers 
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in a republic ; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States ; a 
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American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. 

I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it ; to 
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to defend it against all enemies. 



158 



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In an interesting and entertaining manner, the author uses 
his story of the Capitol as a vehicle for teaching the Constitution 
of the United States ; a Book on Civics, of great value. 

CONSTITUTION IN A NUTSHFXL 

"Smith D. Fry, veteran newspaper writer, has written a bro- 
chure on Constitutional law, and it is a remarkable condensation 
of the supreme law of the land, and will be of the greatest value 
to boys and girls, who Smith says should have indelibly impressed 
on their minds the legend — 'all men and women are created equal.' 

"Never exploiting himself in the slightest degree, but allowing 
his work to speak for itself, Mr. Fry has never heretofore spoken 
of the fact nor intimated that he was a student of law ; and yet. 
he was graduated by the National University Law School of this 
city forty years ago, in the class of 1879. 

"That he has been a profound student of constitutional law 
ever since that time, in some degree accounts for the fact that he 
has enjoyed the confidence and intimate friendship of such 
scholars in public life as Senator Hill of New York, Senator 
Hoar of Massachusetts. Senator Davis of Minnesota, Senator 
Quay of Pennsylvania, vSenator Spooner of Wisconsin, Speaker 
Reed of Maine, Speaker Cannon, Speaker Clark and all others 
in that intellectual class." — From The IVashinqton Herald. 

Price Fifty Cents By Mail, Sixty Cents 

SMITH D. FRY, Author P. O. Box 1714, Washington, D. C. 



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